After my stint on the west side, I drove around to the east side. Since the Going-To-The-Sun Road was closed, there was only one way. Around the park. Highway 2, if I recall. To the east of the park is an Indian Reservation, I forget what nation or tribe. Anyway, I made my way through narrow twisted roads on the sides of cliffs holycraphavethesepeopleneverevenheardofasafetyrailthisisthescariestthingI'veeverdoneAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
But I digress.
I spent a few days/nights at Many Glacier, so called originally because of all of the glaciers there were in the area. Now- not so many.
The campground was situated in a fairly thickly treed area (probably Douglas fir and spruce, but I didn't really check) but no matter where you were all you had to do was look up and HOLYCARPMOUNTAIN(S). Pretty baller. A very short walk away from my site (the drive was longer because I had to go around and around to get out of the campground) was the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn, where Many Glacier ranger programs met for walks, talks, etc. It had a gift shop and a restaurant, the former having huckleberry softserve ice cream and the latter having pretty darn good food.
For the food, it was up and down. The dinners I got were great. The breakfasts.... not so much. I really don't know why. One dinner was fettuccine with red sauce. Which, besides tastily being the first hot non-Ramen-or-oatmeal-or-canned-soup food I'd had in almost a week, was BLASPHEMY. Spaghetti gets red sauce, fettuccine white, and linguine the happy middle ground of either. "It's still hot food in your stomach." Mother still knows best.
My favorite hike here was on July 4th- the Iceberg Lake Hike. While most people were setting off fireworks and drinking, I was hiking. On a mountain. The ranger was a former science teacher, and was one of the more entertaining ones for me to actually listen to, and one of the more informative. He covered scientific stuff, not just the ranger-public nature stuff. Not that many of his audience seemed like they really cared. It was a great day for wildlife. I saw 2 moose (perhaps the same one twice), 2 bears, a golden eagle, mountain goats, and bighorn sheep.
He could only take us on part of the trail- snow covered the last portion and he couldn't take us due to park policy. But we could hike it ourselves. Most everyone turned back at the sight of snow (some of these people had sandals and/or shorts). But two intrepid explorers continues on- myself and a wonderful British woman named Christine. She was on a 2 week vacation from across the pond to see Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier. We had delightful conversations about the US, Britain, differences between our languages, between
dialects, and various other things. I mentioned how I would like to see what British history books say about the Revolutionary War (War of Independence), to which she thought for a second and said she really didn't know- our independence is a lot less important to them than their own national history, such as the monarchs and so forth. I smiled at that. Take that, over-inflated American ego!
Lunch was taken at the side of Iceberg Lake. Which was frozen. Completely. I was eating tuna salad crackers sitting on a rock in the middle of a snow field next to a frozen lake- on July 4th. In America. Mind = BLOWN.
Later that night, after dinner (the unholy pasta) I was sitting on the porch of the inn reading. Or playing Pokemon. I was playing Pokemon. In the bed of a truck in the parking lot was the cutest dog I had ever seen. Literally. I am not a dog person. I wanted this dog. He never made a sound. Just had a face that said "Are you my person? Why is my person?" SO CUTE.
Turns out he belonged to the people next to me whose conversation I was listening to because they were funny. The lady got Harley (that's his name) out of the truck. Btw, he's a Siberian Husky-wolf mix. WAT. And he was so welled trained that she walked him around on an 'invisible leash'. GOOD DOG. BEST FRIEND.
This will make sense to very few people.
After Many Glacier, I headed down to Two Medicine. Which was a campground with 25 sites. One pit toilet. No potable water. Definitely no electricity. And accessible only via a 5 mile gravel road through Indian Reservation territory during which you likely had to wait for horses that stood in the middle of the road every chance they got. Which was every time I drove through except for when I left. Which means 4/5 times.
I went on a 12 miler with 3 rangers and 6 other people. Everyone was an avid outdoorsy person, some younger and more fit than others. We hiked to Medicine Grizzly Lake.
It was GORGEOUS. I didn't take my camera (remember my policy for being outside?) but it was so pretty. Goodness.
I had gotten up from Many Glacier at ~6am to make sure I got down to Two Medicine in time for the hike at 8. So when we got back I set up my tent after paying for a site for 2 nights. I smelled bad. As in I literally had not showered for a week bad. Noticeable only when laying in the tent. Worse was when I took off my socks/shoes. Disgusting.
I was settled in for a nice quiet night. It was. There was only 2 other tents in the place, and I never saw anyone.
The next day I drove back up to St. Mary (which I had driven through but skipped) to see the park from that side, driving and walking around a bit. I got back tired and feet hurting, ready for another peaceful night.
Not. To. Be.
Some dysfunctional family came in and set up camp. Yelling and swearing the whole time. Right next to me. 23 open spots, and you had to pick the one spot next to me. FML. But then they moved one over. Mother, father/grandfather (couldn't really tell how old everyone was in realtion to one another), 2 mid-late teen guys, small girl, smaller boy. One of the teens came out of the toilet smoking right before I went in.
None of them seemed to be enjoying themselves (much less a particularly enjoyable person) and I was like, "Then why are you here?"
The next morning, got up early (sensing a trend here) and stopped at Luna's for huckleberry pancakes. #gooddecision
Drove back to Missoula, and that's where some picture posts come in.
