Today we were off to the area of the park known as Many Glacier, a 45-minute drive in Speedy. Why it is called Many Glacier, I'm not certain, as there are only two glaciers, the Gem and the Grinnell, still visible from the centerpiece of the area, the Many Glacier Hotel, one of the grand park hotels built by the Great Northern Railroad.
Even though there aren't many glaciers, the view was still spectacular. The two lakes in front of hotel, Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine are framed by mountains, with the Grinnell Glacier in the center. There are a good number of hikes in the area, but the two most popular, the routes to the foot of the Grinnell Glacier and the hike to the Ptarmigan Tunnel, were closed due to bears.
I'm not sure of the reason for the Grinnell Glacier closing, but story surrounding the Ptarmigan Tunnel is interesting. The tunnel goes through the Ptarmigan Wall at an altitude of 7,200 feet and is 183 feet long. Nothing I've read says why there is a man-made tunnel there. There are no roads or railroads up there, as far as I can tell. If I had Internet access, maybe I could find out its origin.
Anyway, a family of Grizzly bears seem to have decided that it was a good spot to hang out. One of the bears, a young cub, is said to be extremely curious about humans, running up to them just to take a look and a sniff. This makes Mama bear pretty nervous and angry—and not at her cub. Evidently, the bears decided to take up residence when there were groups of hikers already on the far side of the tunnel (a great view, I'm told) and the hikers had no way to get back except through the tunnel with the bears. The rangers had to come up and shoo the bears away and lead the hikers out after quite a wait. Then they closed to trail, so the bear family could enjoy the tunnel.
We weren't going to hike up there in any case, as it is an 11-mile round-trip hike with an elevation gain of over 2,300 feet. We opted for a more mellow hike, up to Grinnell Lake via a circumnavigation of Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine. Grinnell Lake is the terminating lake under the glacier. As a glacier lake, it has the great milky turquoise color created from the meltwater which contains microscopic rock particles ground away from the mountain by the glacier. It was a pleasant 7-mile hike along one side of the lower lakes and through the woods to Grinnell Lake and then back to the Many Glacier Hotel via the other side of the lakes.
As it was a lakeside walk and a walk along a stream, there wasn't a lot of altitude gain, except for a side trip up to Hidden Falls. We were mostly alone while hiking along the lower lakes, then we got to the trail from the end of Lake Josephine to Grinnell Lake. There are two tour boats which ferry passengers from the hotel up the two lower lakes, leaving a walk of less than a mile to Grinnell Lake. Apparently, this is very popular. We stopped for lunch among the crowd at Grinnell Lake. Ellen was able to find a relatively isolated spot away from most of it, but it was not the quiet lunch we'd hoped for. The hike back was fairly quiet once we passed the boat dock and Lake Josephine and we had the trail mostly to ourselves. It was a good, albeit not too strenuous outing. Little in the way of wildlife; no bears, just a Bighorn ram way up on a crag, visible only with binoculars.
After walking back to the hotel, we stopped at Heidi's Snack Bar for an iced latte and a Moose Drool, a local brown ale. Both were good. As we sat outside in the sun, a small gopher emerged from its den under the hotel and scampered up to us, looking plaintively as we sat there drinking and munching on almonds. We'd never feed the wildlife in a National Park, but I managed to knock a bag of almonds over and one landed on the ground...
After returning to Speedy, we drove over to the nearby Swiftcurrent Motor Inn, which has public showers and a laundromat. We needed both. Unlike Rising Sun, there were four shower stalls in each restroom, so the wait was non-exisient for Ellen and short for me. After two weeks, we didn't have much left in the way of clean clothes, so three washer loads and about an hour of drying later, the laundry bag was empty and the clothes cabinets were full.
By this time it was 7:30 PM and we were hungry. There is an Italian Restaurant at the Motor Inn and we'd thought about a pizza, but I'd overheard the clerk in the camp store saying that it was okay, but the places outside were better, particularly mentioning the the Park Cafe in St. Mary as having excellent pie. So we decided to give it a try as it was on or route back to the campground. It wasn't worth it to say the least (don't get me started).
Tomorrow, we are off over the Going-to-the-Sun Road to the western side of the park and the western side of the Continental Divide.
Photos
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