Hi

We just got back from a 7 night trip to Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks. Our main focus was hiking and wildlife. We flew into and out of Helena, spent our first night there and then headed to Many Glacier for two nights, Waterton Lakes for three nights and then back to Helena for another night before flying home. We planned this trip two months ago when airfares to Montana were on sale.

Lodging:

Helena - Marriott Fairfield Inn - comfortable, clean, convenient, friendly staff, generic.

Many Glacier - Swiftcurrent Motor Lodge, a Pinetop Motor Inn room - These are the ones with the inside entrances. The room was small, the bathroom tiny, the shower bordering on claustrophobic and the walls were thin. It was, however, clean and you can't beat the location (Many Glacier).

Last year we stayed at Many Glacier Hotel in a larger than average lakeside room with balcony (I am not sure how we got so lucky as to get that room, but we did). That room enhanced our wildlife viewing opportunities - we were able to sit out on the balcony in the early morning and in the evening and spot bears on the hill, moose across the lake, beavers swimming by and even a pair of trumpeters swans. A lakeside room with balcony is definitely worth the extra cost, but without balcony, not such a great value.

Waterton Lakes - Shintangle Springs B&B - The B&B is located just outside the park on rte 6, 12 minutes to the center of Waterton Township, in the park. The room was pristine and spacious. The innkeeper, Heather, was personable and helpful without being intrusive. Breakfasts were excellent (and large). The guest lounge area has a small kitchen area (sink, refrigerator, microwave and coffee pots). The refrigerator is stocked with yogurts, bottled water and fruit cups. There is a nice selection of coffees if you want to brew a pot during the day.

We really enjoyed our stay at Shintangle and will likely stay there again sometime in the next couple of years.

Food:

Since we would be hiking daily, we bought a loaf of bread, a jar of raspberry jam and a jar of peanut butter, so that we could make our own lunches to carry, as well as, a small box of raisin bran for breakfasts in Glacier Park. (You can buy small cartons of milk at the Swiftcurrent camp store, but I eat mine dry)

Helena - We ate twice at the Mackenzie River Pizza Company ( http://www.mackenzieriverpizza.com/ ). Last year we ate at the one in Bozeman and were favorably impressed - so we had dinner there the first and last night. The first night we had a small Branding Iron (Italian sausage, jalepenos and crushed red chile) on natural grain crust and a small Buffalo Wing (spicy buffalo sauce, roasted chicken, celery and crumbled blue cheese) on the thin crust. Both were spicy ( but there are plenty of non-spicy options) and very tasty. The last night, we opted for a large thin crust Buffalo Wing pizza.

The morning of our last day, we stopped by the Staggering Ox ( http://www.staggeringox.com/ ) and picked up sandwiches to go since our 40 minute connection in Denver probably was not going to allow enough time to get any food. The Staggering Ox had unique sandwich bread shaped like an open can - cylindrical, with a bottom - and the fillings gets slid in from the top. They have an array of choices (including a number of vegetarian options) and they travel well since the sauce always comes on the side. We both had the Blue Horsies (blue cheese / horseradish) sauce, mine over roast beef and cheese, DH's over the nuke (ham, turkey roast beef, swiss cheese, provolone and cheddar). Good travel day food!

Many Glacier - On the way to Many Glacier from Helena, you pass through St Mary, MT, home to the Park Cafe ( http://www.parkcafe.us/ ) - noted for its pies. We stopped there for lunch. DH had a bison burger (tasty and moist) and I had a well prepared chicken breast sandwich. We also picked up a whole razzleberry (blueberry, blackberry and raspberry) pie which we had pre-ordered via phone two days earlier. The pie was devoured over the next three days after our daily hikes.

The first evening we ate dinner at the restaurant in the Swiftcurrent Motor Lodge - it was typical national park food -mediocre and over-priced. The second evening we opted to drive back out to St Mary and eat at the Park Cafe again - this time sitting outside on the patio/porch - it didn't disappoint.

Waterton Lakes - As described above, the B&B had scrumptious, generous breakfasts and we made sandwiches for our lunches, so that left only dinners to be eaten.

The first night, we headed 10 miles north on Rte 6 to the Twin Butte Country Store and Mexican Restaurant ( http://www.twinbuttestore.ca/ ). DH had the chorizo sausage meal - two chorizo sausages, tortillas, refried beans and mexican rice. I opted for a burrito with out the sides. It was very good mexican food (and we are from southern NM) however it was non-spicy to the max . I defaulted to sprinkling the burrito with a little Louisiana hot sauce, but that made for a weird combination since Mexican food has a different type of spiciness than Cajun food. A little cilantro would have been nice.

We would definitely recommend this restaurant, which also has other options besides Mexican.

The second night we ate at Trapper's Mountain Grill in Waterton Lakes township. The meals come with a small sides of beans and coleslaw - these sides were very good, but the meals themselves were average to mediocre.

The last night we ate at Pizza of Waterton. We were able to sit at one of the outside tables and had a wonderful pizza with Alberta beef and veggies. They don't appear to have a website, otherwise I would definitely provided a link - this restaurant is definately recommended.

Miscellaneous - On the way up to Helena, we grabbed sandwiches at Heidi's Brooklyn Deli on concourse B (near gate B 88) in Denver during our layover. The service was fast; they are really efficient and the sandwiches were very good (http://www.heidisbrooklyndeli.com/ )

After one of our hikes, we stopped for an ice cream at Big Scoops in Waterton Park. I was glad that I only got a single scoop since the ice cream (expresso chip) was nothing special, an opinion shared by DH (black cherry).

Well this is all for now - more later on hikes and wildlife.

FYI - report also posted on Canadian board

Pamela

EveningCrane: Thank you for the trip report. Very amusing to hear you mention the Twin Butte Country Store & Mexican Restaurant, considering there is virtually nothing around for miles! My husband and I ate there during our recent trip to Waterton. Food WAS good. We did notice the Shintangle -- we were up in that remote area because we stayed at the Corner Mountain Inn, north of the restaurant. Talk about rolling plains as far as the eye could see! Corner Mountain Inn was very nice and the owner, Janet, cooked some great breakfasts.

Sounds like a fun trip! I love Staggering Ox and MacKenzie River, too.

Hi

Hikes:

Red Rock Falls (Glacier NP); The afternoon we arrived in Glacier we hiked out to Red Rock Falls on the Swiftcurrent Pass Trail. We actually continued on for a ways, getting to the foot of Bullhead Lake (just after the short one-person-at-a-time wooden foot bridge). The trail is basically level and we were comfortably hiking in our Keen sandals. The falls are not spectacular but very pretty all the same. You have to take one of the side paths off the main trail to get the best views (or to climb on the rocks in and around the waterfall.)

On the way back we stopped at Fisher Cap Lake, where a bull moose was happily munching away on pond weeds. He was very amenable to posing; DH got some good shots. And for about fifteen minutes I was treated to stereophonic shutter sounds as I stood between DH and another photographer (both with digital SLRs ) - every time the moose lifted his head out of the water, I heard ten to twelve rapid fire shutter clicks on both sides of me, followed by silence as the moose plunged his head under water in search of more weeds.

Ptarmigan Tunnel (Glacier National Park): The next day we hiked to Ptarmigan Tunnel. This hike follows the Iceberg Trail (one of the kindest, gentlest uphill trails in the park) to just past Ptarmigan Falls (~2.5 miles). After you turn off of Iceberg, heading towards the tunnel, the grade noticeably increases (not kind, not gentle anymore). After a while, the trail moderates as you continue on to Ptarmigan Lake. We tend to start our day hikes relatively early, so when we arrived at Ptarmigan Lake, it was very still, mirroring the slopes aboves.

From the lake, with binoculars, you can see part of the tunnel entrance - you can also see the long, steep switch-backed path up to the tunnel across the exposed talus slope. Fortunately there was a herd of bighorn sheep (ewes and lambs) on the talus slope, giving us plenty of opportunity to rest while taking photos. After we made the tunnel we continued through to the other side - beautiful views of Lake Elizabeth and the Belly River valley. We continued down the trail a ways (~.5 mi), past some incredible reddish rock outcroppings, until we had a view of Mt Merritt and the Old Sun Glacier.

Returning to the tunnel, we went back through and ate lunch overlooking Ptarmigan Lake and then it was back the way we came. Wonderful hike ~ 11 mi, 2300 ft elevation gain.

Grinnell Lake (Glacier NP) - The next morning, we decided to do the Grinnell Lake hike prior to driving up to Waterton Lakes. This is another relatively flat hike easy to accomplish in our Keen sandals (Ptarmigan Tunnel was a hiking boots and hiking poles trip). Last year we did the Grinnell Glacier hike during which you get some marvelous views of Grinnell Lake. I think the lake is prettier (much bluer) from above, but it still was a nice lake.

On the way back, on the northern hillside above Lake Josephine, we saw a mother grizzly and her two cubs grazing on berries. They were well off the trail but still nicely viewable. There was also a report of a black bear and cub that had just swum across the northeast part of the lake, near the boat dock, that were supposedly still in the area but we never saw them.

After our hike we headed up to Canada - well this is all for now

Pamela

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