Glacier (41) - August 11, 2019

Sunday

We had a really great day today.  We left our cabin around 8:30 am and drove around the southern border of the park to East Glacier Park then into the Two Medicine area.  There was a strong chance of rain and this was supposed to be the least visited, ugliest, most remote part of the park so we decided to visit it first. 

We parked down by Two Medicine Lake (there’s an Upper and a Lower Two Medicine Lake but this was just “Two Medicine Lake.”  We took what was supposed to be a short hike to Aster Falls.

But we met a nice older couple from South Carolina who told us we should hike on to Twin Falls then take the Ferry back and that we could just pay the ferry captain.  Well, we just blindly did what she recommended (which is unusual for us, mostly for me) and we hiked another long way to where our total hike was 4.5 miles.  We crossed a great bridge and walked out into the open where the lake opened up.  It was stunning.

When we got to the boat dock there was an hour wait until the next ferry and as we sat there and talked with Steve from Seattle, whose wife Jackie is battling metastatic colon cancer, a bunch of other hikers showed up who had all bought tickets on the other side and who all got to trump us in line.  

We met a nice group of older ladies from Northern California who told us we could jump on their group ticket but we decided not to and there wasn’t enough room but the ferry guy said he’d come back and get us 30 minutes later.  So we just hung out and enjoyed the day (and no rain thus far).  Ryan collected rocks, Grant skipped rocks and we just enjoyed the next 30 minutes.  And our ferry ride back, instead of being packed, only had the four of us and Steve and two guys from Chicago on it and it was just so peaceful and beautiful.  

It was now 2:45 and we hadn’t eaten our trail lunch yet because we’d left it in the car.  So we ate on a bench in front of the restrooms -pepperoni sandwiches and fruit – then we drove up through St. Mary’s to Canada.  We stopped at Customs, an experience the kids hadn’t ever had.  And we also stopped and took pictures of the Waterton Lakes National Peace Park sign (or something like that).  

No more than a mile or two into the park, I spotted a grizzly bear on the side of the main road and I pulled over, grabbed my camera and the damn thing crossed the road!  And right as I took the picture he went behind a bush.  Holy cow, we were the only people who saw him and it’s the first grizzly any of us had ever seen. Nick said it was a yearling (a teenager) - it made the trip!

Can't you tell there's a bear behind the bush???

We didn’t stay long in the park before we decided to turn around and head back into the US.  As we drove back to the main highway, we drove on a road that was a free range cattle road and right before we turned on the road that would take us back to St. Mary’s, MT, we had to stop the car so a herd of cattle could cross the street. 

We stopped for ice cream in St. Mary’s then drove the Going-to-the-Sun road back to our cabin.  It started to rain and was very foggy/cloudy which made the experience so cool. But it’s also cool that we can drive it again tomorrow when it’s supposed to be clear. 

We finally got back to our cabin at 7:15 pm.