Entering Glacier National Park

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Anxious to get to Glacier, we were up and at it a little earlier that usual. After breakfast, we cleaned up and broke camp and headed back to Missoula. We had a little rain overnight, and some thunder and lightning, and before getting down to Lolo, there was a wildfire in the hills. We could see the smoke for quite a way before seeing the helicopter drop a bucket of water on it and then fly off for a refill.

Barney led us right through the city, and we headed up 93 toward Flat Head Lake. It is a large beautiful blue lake, and we drove up the east side of it. The only stop we made was for some fresh cherries at one of the many stands along the road. Wow are they good!

I guess we also stopped to fuel up about twenty miles outside the park, and then headed on in.  Somehow we wound up in the right spot for the campground, and basically took the first spots we saw that were together and not already taken. The campground had filled at 2:43 the day before, so we didn’t want to look around too much before snatching a good spot. We are located pretty close to the trail over to Apgar Village and the VC. We had to drive through the village (about 5 shops, a small café and a couple of motels, but hoards of people) to get to the campground, and it was really crowded, so we decided to walk over to get our stamp at the VC.

There is a webcam at the corner of the VC and if you look at the webcams on the Glacier NP site, you can see the little store across from the VC. As we crossed the street and headed up the walk to the VC, we waved. We just didn’t call you to tell you to be looking!

There is a trail from the campground, and it’s about a quarter of a mile, so away we went. But first we had to trek down a trail that was not maintained and after a quarter mile or so on that one we had to turn around and find the real one. After stepping over numerous fallen trees, we finally got to the VC and back on the well maintained trail. Twas fun and funny, but we were tired.

Later in the evening we walked over to the lake shore to have a look. It is very pretty. We wound up going through the ampitheater, and since a program was in progress we had to sit and listen for a few minutes.

Twas a fun day, and we will sleep good tonight. Hope you have a good one.