Jan 7, 20225 min read

My 2021 National Park Road Trip, Park Two: Glacier, Day One

Updated: Feb 27, 2022

Hello, and welcome to my blog! This is my very first post on my own website..

I was only going to share photos of the park, but then I remembered some of my phone photos of places we stayed and other things we saw. So this will not only be about the park, but the other places we stayed and visited... There will also be a mix of camera and phone photos. My phone camera isn't so great, but the photos still capture moments that I hope I remember for along time..

Day One

We planned on staying on the east side of the park, as I really wanted to see the Many Glacier area. But that apparently wasn't in the cards for us this trip. First of all, the hotel we planned on staying at lost power at the time we were supposed to be checking in. Actually, all of East Glacier Park lost power.. So we ended up staying in Whitefish.

On the way to Whitefish, I saw a scenic spot I heard of called Goat Lick Overlook, so I wanted to see if there were any goats.. As I'm walking up the path, I see a couple of people coming toward me, so I ask them if there were any goats.. And then I realized I saw the man before and knew who he was.. See, I'm from Northwest Indiana, just outside of Chicago, so we get more Chicago news than Indiana.. And I'm an avid watcher of WGN.. The man that came my way was retired news anchor from WGN, Mark Suppelsa! He was SO nice!! When he retired, he and his family moved to Big Fork, he said they go to Glacier often. Talk about a crazy random place to meet someone (and basically a celebrity, no less) from the area that you live, five states away! I only wish I had my cellphone on me so I could've asked to get a selfie with him to send to Tom Skilling, Tom would have loved that!! This was one of those right place, right time "you were supposed to be here" moments. And I felt like there were a lot of those on this trip. This particular one was just crazy though. Lol

Anyway, we stayed in a nice little hotel called the Chalet Inn (I highly recommend it) in Whitefish. I was farther away from the park than I wanted to be, but it was pretty great. The owner put so much thought into her property, it was hard to miss the personal touches. Each room key had an attached bear bell! For those that do not know (I didn't), a bear bell is worn to make sure any bears know you're around while hiking. You do not want to startle a bear.. Here's a few phone pics of the motel..

She had placed these cute little signs throughout the property.. I liked this one, because it basically was happening to us.. "Lost in the Right Direction..". The next pic is of table and two chairs that were in front of our room..

This was the owners pup.. He was such a sweetie.. He'd come and visit when he heard a bear bell..

This is/was the age of covid, and the parks were very busy, even after Labor Day. For the first time, during the summer months, they implemented ticketed entry in some of the busier national parks.. And Going To The Sun Road, through Glacier, was part of that process. That ended just two days before we arrived, so there were more people than I was expecting.. I'll start by saying I'm going to have to return one day, as we missed the Many Glacier area due to the large crowds.. But I wasn't going to let that keep me from loving every minute of my time here. I also wasn't going to let the hazy, smoky air drifting in from the many wildfires in the western states deter my joy in simply being here. Would I have liked to seen more? Sure.. But as much as I want to return one day, it could be a once in a lifetime trip. So I was going to enjoy it, and I did.. It was honestly amazing. I'm from Indiana, the land of flat. Lol.. So this was well, epic. We weren't in the physical condition to hike at sea levels over 2,000 feet, especially considering the sea levels where we live are in the vicinity of 600 ft.. So this was mainly a "see the sights while driving" trip. Although I did take one day and take a bit of a nature walk..

Although we ended up staying on the west side of the park, we arrived on the east side first. Arriving in the afternoon, we wanted to get to the visitor center before it closed.. Our first stop was to take pics at the entrance sign, of course.. Then on to Saint Mary Visitor Center. My cousin and I also began collecting national park stamps on this trip, so hitting the many different visitors centers was a bit of a priority.. Lol..

Day One: 09/08/2021

In case you're wondering about the back of my car.. My husband and I are big Doctor Who fans (It's a long running British sci-fi TV series), and so is my cousin that went with me on this trip, lol..

Next to the visitor center parking lot was a platform for an osprey nest.. I was lucky enough to have my camera ready when mom brought dinner. This was about 2pm..

On our way back to East Glacier and what we thought was going to be our hotel, around 3 pm, we saw a pull off and decided to check it out. It turned out to be the St. Mary Overlook. It was a beautiful stop overlooking the St. Mary Valley with Divide Mountain behind, along with cultural and ecological history of the valley, and beautiful sculptures by Blackfoot artist Duane After Buffalo. This overlook is actually located in the Blackfeet Nation.. Along Hwy 89 about two miles south of St Mary..

These little guys were EVREYWHERE, and LOUD.. lol

In the next several photos, you can see the aftermath of two wildfires, the Red Eagle fire (2006), and the Reynolds Creek fire (2015), surrounding the overlook..

Our last stop of the day was in the Two Medicine area of Glacier.. We arrived around 4:30 and noticed a short trail, so we ventured out.. And were glad we did..

Our first waterfall sighting.. Running Eagle Falls.. Apparently, in the spring, a second waterfall falls from the top above the lower falls.. Idk, I kind of liked it like this..