We just got back from Glacier National Park on Friday (9/26/03) and I'm ready for another visit. What a gorgeous place! The photos I'd seen hadn't really captured it.

We did a number of hikes in the park, the best of which was the 11.5-mile roundtrip trek to Grinnell Glacier. In addition to the real live glacier, we saw mountain goats, bighorn sheep (close enough to pet if we were stupid), a grizzly (from a distance) and the ever-popular hoary marmot.

Our base was in Whitefish (more on that later) but we spent one night at Lake McDonald Lodge. It was rustic and probably not worth the $93 for our tiny cabin room, but it was pretty exciting to fall asleep and wake up right in the park. We also enjoyed the boat tour on the lake and the evening's talk about the building of the Going-to-the-Sun road.

After doing various hikes around the Lake McDonald, Many Glacier and Two Medicine areas, we decided to check out the less-visited western side of the park. Turns out there's a reason it's less visited. The narrow gravel roads around Polebridge are horrific. We did a nice hike to Hidden Meadow but the whole experience was pretty scary.

We ended up not taking the Red Jammer bus tour. My husband (the good driver in the family) happily drove us back and forth on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. It's an amazing feat of engineering and the views are just spectacular.

Whitefish is a cool little town. We spent an hour looking at the memorabilia at the Stumptown Historical Society and had some good beer at the Great Northern Brewing Company. To the amazement of this NYC sushi snob, the food at Wasabi was excellent.

Other restaurants we liked: The Knead in Kalispell (great vegetarian options) and the Spruce Park Cafe in Coram (yes, it's in a gas station, but the breakfast was terrific).

Thanks again to the good people of Montana, the weather gods, the glaciers and all the wildlife that made our trip so perfect.

Glad you enjoyed our little corner of the world. Was at Bowman Lake Sunday and yes though the roads are bad(not horrific-keeps the rif raf away)the beauty and quiet makes that part of the park special especially this time of year with the Aspens and Tamaracks turning golden yellow.
Weather is still gorgeous with our first frost predicted for the valley tonight.
Incidentally, two lady hikers were mauled by a grizzly last Sunday but only received punctures and cuts. They attribute that to bear spray which they used to scare the griz away!!
Another testimonial for spray.
Glad you enjoyed the park.

We are considering GNP for our summer vacation next year. Just so happens I was watching a special on PBS last night at 11:00 (instead of getting some shut eye) and saw the info about Whitefish and that they have 47 restaurants in town. Is Whitefish worth spending an overnight?

Also, did you visit the Canadian portion? We want to include the Prince Albert Hotel in our stay--worth it? Thanks.....

Hugglynn - that's the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton National Park, named after Prince Edward - maybe even the one who married Wallis Simpson - of a century or so(?) ago.
I have never stayed there but have wandered around; it has an interesting "wood beam" interior (at least - the lobby does).
Waterton has some gorgeous views of the lake, and in the summer there are cruises the length of the lake right down to Montana.

By the way John - I'm surprised to hear that you haven't had frost in the mountains of Montana yet. Up here on the prairies of Alberta we've had some nippy nights already, but in spite of that, many of the decidous trees are still green.

WOW!! 47 restaurants???? I live in the neighboring town and you must have misunderstood. Just for laughs I just counted restaurants in the yellow pages for Whitefish and counted 28 which includes 5/6 pizza joints, mcDonalds, wendys etc.
For more info on Whitefish,try
www.travel.state.mt.us/
www.discoveringmontana.com

For info on GNP
www.nps.gov
www.nps.gov/glac/home.htm

For info. on Canadian Rockies
www,canadianrockies.com
www.banff.com

Come on out; the fires are all out!!!!

BOREALIS
We have had a dusting of snow in the mountains but unusually warm weather her in the valleys.
Soon to come to an end I'm sure!!

Hugglynn:
Here are some more websites for Waterton Nat'l Park (the last one is the Parks Canada website):

http://www.discoverwaterton.com/

http://www.watertoninfo.ab.ca/

http://www.watertonpark.com/

http://parkscanada.pch.gc.ca/pn-np/a...on/index_e.asp

John - up here it has suddenly turned warm (approx. 20C = 68F) and sunny again - and with beautifully clear deep-blue skies - awesome for photography!!

We just returned from a great trip that included Waterton and Glacier and must add my two-cents to the Whitefish discussion. Personally, I think Whitefish is too far from the park entrances to be convenient. Of course, all of those restaurants would be a big draw. We drove through North Dakota and Montana on US 2 and would have starved without our ice chest!

Waterton is worth the trip up from Glacier, at least for a day trip.

We camp at a campground just north of town and nearly always see bears--lots of berry bushes.

Whitefish is a bit of a trek from the park -- about 30 minutes from the West Glacier entrance. It's not the most convenient base if you want to go to the park every day. But yes, it's definitely worth going to dinner there. The movie theater's OK, too.