Many Glacier

September 13, 2007
Thursday
On our way out of town, we stopped at Brownie’s Bakery for real coffee and real muffins. We parked on Two Medicine Road and hiked a short distance to Running Eagle Fall, a beautiful torrent of water that cascades out of a cliff face.
At Two Medicine Lake we hiked a mile to Paradise Point and back.. As with everywhere we went in the park, we encountered groups of people standing still with binoculars glued to their eyes. Binoculars replace cell phones at the ubiquitous attachment in northern Montana.
We ran into Larry Perry at the General Store. He was driving the shuttle today after working almost twelve hours yesterday on the Red Bus. He said that GPI is short of drivers and he had only three days off in August.
Many Glacier Lodge would not let us check in until 3 pm so we had a picnic in the lobby. Gail got us upgraded to a lake view room at the appointed time. It was rather small and had twin beds but we worked that out. Every night when we went to bed, I threw my hat to Gail. Sometimes she threw it back. Sometimes she brought it back.
The bathrooms in the hotel were tiny and we found out later that they were originally closets. The hotel furnished community bathrooms for 6-7 rooms to share when it was built in 1915, at a time when indoor running water was considered a luxury.
Ranger Rick Mulligan put on a historic hotel tour at 4:00. James J. Hill, one of the owners of the Great Northern Railway, built Glacier Park Lodge in 1913. His son Louis built Many Glacier in 1915 and he loved hotels so much that he stepped down from his position with the railway to concentrate on his hotel business.
During World War I when European travel business was not doing so well, Louis Hill coined the phrase "See America First" and advertised Many Glacier Lodge as headquarters of the American Alps. He built the lodge in Swiss architectural style to enhance that theme.
As years went by and economic times changed, the domestic luxury travel business waned. When employees successfully fought off the great wildland fire of 1936, they cabled the Minneapolis headquarters of Great Northern that they had "saved the hotel." The one work reply was, "Why?"
Eventually the railway sold its Glacier Park holdings to the mayor of Tucson who formed Glacier Park Incorporated, the company that runs the concession today.
The hotel is midway through planned restoration as a National Historic Landmark but federal funds for the work have dried up during the past couple of years. So far the entire outside–roof, walls and foundation–has been restored or rehabilitated.
The last thing Rick pointed out was Swiftcurrent lake, right outside the windows of the lodge, and said that "In 1930 they raised the level of the lake by artificial means to make it look more natural."
We went to dinner afterward and ordered the signature meal of the lodge–cheese fondue–but they were out.
Ranger Rick put on another show at 8:00, Glacier’s Magnificent Mammals, and we attended that downstairs in the Lucerne Room. Rick broke the ice by asking how many people in the room had hiked that day, then how many had been out on the boat, then how many had mountain biked. He said he brought that up because it’s illegal to mountain bike on the trails in the national park. What a jokester.
Glacier National Park has 63 species of mammal, 64 if you count humans. Six species of weasel, three canines, including the grey wolf which has re-introduced itself into the park, three felines, and so on. Elk migrate through in spring and fall. The red fox, which may not even be native to North America, is the most widespread mammal on the continent. There was more, but that’s enough.
Friday
We boarded Chief Two Guns at 9:00 and boated across Swiftcurrent Lake. Ranger Bob Schuster was our hike. At the end of the lake, we docked and walked a quarter mile to the head of Josephine Lake where, somehow, they had brought the boat around ahead of us and we re-boarded and cruised to the other end.
Many of the people on the boat headed off to climb to Grinnell Glacier and the rest of us gathered to hike with Ranger Bob to Grinnell Lake. Light rain fell on us as we walked through the forest. We saw a moose a short distance from the trail, eating huckleberries. Our friends, Don and Joyce Wells, who are park veterans, had told us that this was a good place to see moose.
We crossed Cataract Creek on a swinging suspension bridge, one of Mrs. Davis’ favorite experiences, and arrived soon thereafter at the lake. Ranger Bob told us about the geologic history of the park and pointed way up on the cliffs to tiny white dots that were mountain goats. Lots of binoculars appeared at that.
We saw the moose again on the way back, lying with his back to us in a grassy dell. Ranger Bob told us that if a moose or a bear should approach us in a threatening manner, we were to form a circle and he would get inside.
We had lunch in the Ptarmigan Room at a lakeside window. Our busboy was from Kazakhstan and our server from Slovakia. Gail said her Reuben sandwich was the best she’s ever eaten.
Rain began to fall in serious amounts after lunch and we found sofa chairs in the lobby next to the fireplace and did not budge for the rest of the day except to get Irish coffees from the lounge. We watched lots of people trail in from their hike to the glacier. Most said that they returned before the rain got too bad. Some had to share the trail with bighorn sheep who were not happy to share.
We ran into Russ Jensen from the bike club in the gift shop and his wife Kay. They were on their way home to San Luis Obispo.
We got to have cheese fondue in the dining room later on and it was worth waiting for.
Saturday
Yesterday’s rain turned to snow on the higher peaks and we awoke to a winter wonderland.
After breakfast, we walked on the Swiftcurrent Lake Nature Trail between the lake and the road. Don and Joyce recommended this as another good trail to see moose, at Fishercap Lake.
We stopped to ask a group of parked motorists why they were staring through binoculars at the hill on the other side. They said they were watching a grizzly mother and two cubs. We asked where to look and they said they were behind bushes and we couldn’t see them.
We shopped at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn store, then took the Swiftcurrent Pass trail to the Fishercap Lake fork and walked a short distance to the lake. A group of people from the Elder hostel bus tour told us we were wasting our time to come there looking for moose and we smiled at them.
The lake surface was calm and smooth like glass and reflected the surrounding mountains in such a compelling way that I took more photographs than was really warranted. On our way out, I suggested a short cut on a trail that looked as if it were going in the right direction. Three moose loomed out of the brush ahead of us and browsed their way toward us, paying no attention as long as we did not move. I took a lot of photos while Gail hurriedly walked back to the main trail. Don and Joyce were right again.
Back at the lodge in time for lunch, we chatted with the Ptarmigan Room manager, RJ, and gave him our card because he said he wants to come work in Morro Bay next January.
We found chairs again in the main lodge after lunch next to the fireplace and never budged again until dinner time. Except that every once in a while, herds of people migrated outside to the deck with their binoculars. The first time, Gail joined them and asked what they were looking at. It was a grizzly bear with two cubs, but they were hidden behind bushes when Gail looked for them.
People were also abuzz with the news of a bear that swam across the lake earlier in the day. Gail talked to several people who know all about it but no one who had actually seen it.
Dinner again in the Ptarmigan lounge, bison stroganoff, and that was that.