Weekend Off - Where to Go?

With my car wheel bearing replaced, I was ready for a little weekend adventure.  Even better . . . my first "weekend" off without rain in the forecast. It is nice having Sunday & Monday off as my weekend off, and I made the most of it this past weekend, as the weather was warm and sunny. 

My initial plan was to head north towards Glacier National Park and its sister park Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta (yes, in Canada).  I had done a basic routing, figuring I'd have plenty of time at the St. Mary's entrance to Glacier on my way to Canada.  Unfortunately, when I got the border crossing, I learned I needed to be a registered visitor on their ArriveCAN website.

I guess I should have done more research, but I has under the impression that with the COVID pandemic concerns lessened and the borders open between the US & Canada, there were no onerous processes in place.  I was wrong . . . and got turned around . . . told by the Canadian border agent that I would need to go back into the USA, find a signal and register online with my vaccination status.

Given the border was only going to be open until 6pm local time, and it was already 2pm, it hardly seemed worth the effort.  Having looked up the information online since returning home to Gardiner, I've decided it's OK if I never get back to Canada as long as they have such onerous requirements.

The other thing that happened was that I realized the direct border entry point between Glacier NP and Waterton Lakes NP has remained closed since pre-COVID.  I suppose staffing the extra entry point in such challenging times is the underlying reason, but I don't know.  It was unfortunate that I got all the way to that border only to see this.  All in all, pretty poor planning on my part.

That said, it was still a really great couple of days, so not being able to get into Canada didn't deter or upset me.  I did realize about mid-afternoon, that I was going to need a hotel room near Glacier NP.  I started calling around, and was happy with being able to land a hotel room in the Izaak Walton Inn, in Essex (about 20 miles from the West Entrance into Glacier National Park).

Before trying to enter Canada, I did stop by the St. Mary's Entrance into Glacier NP.  At the entrance, they were allowing unrestricted entrance.  When I asked about the advance reservation system, the guard at the gate said they were allowing folks to enter since the Going to the Sun Road was still being dug out at Logan Pass, and from this particular entrance, you could only go about 14 miles.  Knowing this, I went to the visitor center to stamp my passport booklet and use the bathroom, as I wanted to get up to Canada ASAP and maximize my time there.

Once turned around at the border, I did head back to the St. Mary's entrance and did drive the 14 miles to explore what I could.  This is one of the beautiful overlook viewing areas.  It was a nice drive through the park, but no wildlife to see in this part of the park.  The ranger did say that some folks had seen mountain goats with spotting scopes earlier in the day.

From the east entrance area, I headed for the main (more central) entrance in West Glacier.  Because it was after 6pm, the gate was unattended. I had hoped to get to the visitor center to get my passport booklet stamped from this entrance too.  But alas, they were already closed, so I figured I could come back the next morning.

Another miscalculation on my part . . . thinking what I had been told earlier at St. Mary's entrance would hold true at the west entrance, so rather than driving what part of the park I could Sunday night, I opted to go find supper.  BAD DECISION!

Dinner at the Glacier Highland in West Glacier was very good, I had the chicken pot pie.  So I was happy I decided to eat since I hadn't had lunch and didn't want to wait until 8pm (or later?) to eat at Izaak Walton Inn.

It's just unfortunate, because the next morning I ventured back to the park around 7am, but they were tightly monitoring all entering vehicles for their advance timed reservations.  When I explained what I had been told the day before, he said that several people inside the park were giving out bad information.  Further, as the busiest entrance into the park, they were following the reservation system, even though the road wasn't open all the way through.

So I missed out on driving the road for wildlife and scenic photo ops, as well as not getting my West Glacier passport stamp.  Oh well.

One of my wildlife viewing and photography  spots turned out to be right on US 2, a few miles east of the Izaak Walton Inn.  There were a lot of cars pulled over at a waterfall area.  When I got closer, I realized they were seeing a group of mountain goats . . . several ewes with lambs.  I pulled over and parked safely to join the people.

Look closely to see the small lamb behind its momma.  It was amazing watching them, as they are very agile and capable walking around on the steep rocky incline down to the water below.

This cute little one stayed very close to her, until she decided to leave the waterfalls and head back up to where the others were.

All totaled, I counted around 12 goats in this area.  Some never did come down from the grassy area where they were grazing.

With this little bit of excitement over, I headed to my lodging.  I was pretty tired, so getting in before dark was good.  I was surprised that it really didn't get dark until close to 10pm!

There was no TV in the rooms, as things were kept in the tradition of no-frills lodging built for the railroad workers of the 1930's.  I was OK with it, actually.  I enjoyed some time outside in the fresh evening air, watching the trains go by.

During my hour on the porch swing, there were three orange & black BNSF trains that passed through, as well as Amtrak's Empire Builder (which runs from Chicago to Portland, OR/Seattle, WA).  I've done the Empire Builder twice . . . once (roundtrip) from Milwaukee to Whitefish, MT and the other time home from Seattle.

About the drive to/from Glacier National Park, I took two different routes.  And while the trip north was lovely . . . the best part of the drive was coming back to Gardiner through Kalispell and the Flathead National Forest.  Some of the views were simply amazing throughout Montana.  Snow capped mountains surrounding in all directions, in expansive valleys.  Some areas were sparse of trees, mostly ranchland . . . while others had tall ponderosa pines.  The pine tree lined mountains reminded me a lot of the area around Lake Tahoe.

Here are just a few of the photographs I took of the landscape seen throughout my 1,100 miles (yes over just two days!).

On my way home, I stumbled upon the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site . . . just off I90 in Deer Lodge.  I wish I had more time to spend there, as they offered tours of the 1860's ranch.  Unfortunately, I arrived around 2:15pm and the next tour wasn't until 3:30pm . . . plus it was pretty hot (mid/high 80's).  I really wanted to get home as I had some grocery shopping and laundry to do once back in Gardiner.