Day 14 – Glacier National Park
August 10, 2013
I am glad that as I write these notes, Microsoft Word
completes the date for me. I have no idea what day of the week it is and I
could only guess at the date. We have been on the road for two weeks.
Today, we explored the small town of East Glacier for
breakfast and dinner and in between drove through the Blackfeet Indian
Reservation town of Browning to Many Glaciers part of the park. At the heart of
Many Glaciers is the historic Many Glaciers Hotel. It is a similar wooden
structure and age to the lodge we are staying in, but it sits at the shores of
Swift Current Lake surrounded by mountains and some small glaciers. This
morning, the lake was calm and had a mirror like surface.
We were lucky enough to get tickets for the two lake boat
ride across first Swift Current Lake and then after a short hike between lakes,
across Josephine Lake. There are only 49 seats on each boat and reservations
are taken up to three days prior. We were not that organized and were glad to
find that they set aside a few seats each trip for people on a waiting list.
The boat ride is mellow and beautiful. The views are the most spectacular I
think one can have without mountain climbing. The lakes at Many Glacier were my favorite spot of our trip.
After spending the whole afternoon there, we climbed back
into our van and headed back towards East Glacier. Based on our experience last
night, we were expecting about a two hour drive, which thankfully only took
about an hour and 15 minutes. We multi-tasked before dinner with Ricardo doing
laundry in the small town, the kids and I shopping for Christmas gifts in a
wooden spoon shop, and all of us meeting for dinner at Luna’s. Alle was very
excited to find that the wooden carvers made Harry Potter like wands. She
selected one and heard the full story about its construction. She signed a
special registry and received the numbered wand.
While we ate our second ice cream of the day after dinner,
we had the treat of seeing the once-a-day Amtrak Empire Builder train arrive in
East Glacier. Many people got off and many people got on the sleeper cars
headed for Seattle. It was running a few hours late, but perhaps that is part
of the charm. I sent an email to my Mum, who is a huge fan of train travel and Amtrak. Ted was so terrified of how huge real trains
are when they are arriving in front of you, he went with Alle to sit in our car
to watch.
We are now gearing up to pick back up our RV, pack and leave
Glacier National Park tomorrow morning. We have our longest day tomorrow if we
are to reach Canyon Campgrounds in northern Yellowstone Park.
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