Chilling in Glacier

Sunday, 13 September 2009

Another update from the car park...

Road Trip Day 25

One of the side effects of this fantastic Adventure I am on is that days of the week don't mean much. Today, however, was a Sunday and it felt like it. I didn't have to drive to a new town, the roads were quiet, the sun was shining and I went for a hike round a lake.

Hold the... just about everything

There's a restaurant 3 minutes walk from me here at Jacobson's Cottages so I kept things simple and strolled down the hill for breakfast. They have two specialties; French Toast (which I don't really know what is, but was too shy to ask) and Omelettes. The whole menu looked a bit fancy-schmancy for my simple tastes so I ordered the Bacon Omelette, being careful make sure they held the onion, garlic, mushroom, spinach, cheese sauce and sour cream. Seriously, all that stuff was listed in the ingredients for a Bacon Omelette. My version only had two ingredients and one of those is in the name.

Many Glacier

Yeah, my grammar checker doesn't like the phrase "Many Glacier" either, but that is the name of the area to the north-east of Going to the Sun road. It is less visited than the central area that I drove yesterday as it is further to travel and is along a dead end road.

The reduced number of people up in this section of the park increased the tranquillity no-end. I chose a simple loop around one of the many lakes in Glacier and got to do some more singing and talking to myself to avoid surprising any local bears. I did some mental arithmetic out loud today.

Two Medicine

After a picnic lunch (half a giant Chocolate Fudge Brownie counts as a picnic lunch, right?) I drove to the southern entrance to Glacier's other less frequented and equally grammatically confusingly named area. One of Two Medicine's attractions is Running Eagle Falls. A short walk from the road brings you to a waterfall which, whilst not large, is very clever. You see the water doesn't come over the top, but out of the middle; kind of like water pouring through a letter-box.

Also, it's worth Googling Running Eagle, her story is very inspiring.

Artsy Fartsy

Anyway, I was so delighted by these falls that I sat on the stony shore beside the stream and invented some more skimming stones games. First off, there's normal skimming stones, trying to get as many bounces as possible. Then there's bouncing just once then landing on the other bank. Finally there's bouncing over a little spit of stones jetting out into the stream and bouncing several times on the other side.

I am champion at all three.

Not that I will ever, ever get tired of skimming stones, but I did want another diversion whilst sat on the shingle so I turned my attention to art and made a little sculpture like my Mum taught me. Do you like it?

So, utterly chilled and deeply wowed by the unquestionable beauty of Glacier National Park I returned feeling warm and a little sleepy to the motel. A delicious dinner of Rainbow Trout with rice and garlic mashed potatoes and I'm done.

Quiz Time

As a bonus, here's a Glacier National Park themed quiz.

Can you spot the odd one out in this photo? [Hint: It's not one of the trees]

Good Luck and Goodnight.

Stats - Day Fifty-One

Distance travelled - 0 miles - Stayed at East Glacier, MT

State count - 20 + DC + B.C.

Room numbers stayed in - 203, 1, 148, 212, 205, 210, 246, 118, 3, 145, 229, 111, 207, 206, 40, 605, "Cowboy", 35, 11