Through Montana to Glacier National Park

As it is almost 500 miles across Montana from North Dakota, we had planned to take 3 to 4 days for this distance with stops at several points of interest. The weather however did not wish to cooperate and sent several waves of thunderstorms and tornado warnings toward us. So we extended our daily mileage in order to be west of these afternoon and evening storms. We did however need to evacuate the motorhome into the park office for several hours one evening when the tornado sirens warned us of the nearby danger. Very severe thunderstorms and tornados did touch down far to both the northwest and south of us.

Glacier National Park

Some of the finest mountain scenery in America is within this million acre national park part of which is the Blackfoot Indian Nation. With our quicker trip across Montana we were able to add two extra days in the park. Near the East Glacier entrance we traveled with a park ranger by boat across Two Medicine Lake for a warmup hike of about 5 miles to Upper Two Medicine Lake. Appropriate to the area his topic of discussion along the hike was medicinal plants and the positive effects on your health of enjoying your natural surroundings.

Twisted Falls                                                        Blackfeet Indian Nation

The warm summer weather in this area has increased the melt of the snowfields and therefore the flow of the waterfalls and the flowering of the meadows.

         Sego Lilly                                                               St Mary Lake with GPSer    

Flowers in the Meadow                                                             Beargrass        

 For one of our most challenging hikes on this trip we ventured to Many Glaciers and the trail to Iceberg Lake, 10.7 miles round trip and 1600 feet up. This was a hike we had done about twenty years ago but needed to repeat it for its fantastic views. Of course we did it in clouds and did not see the surrounding mountain peaks.

               Approaching Iceberg Lake                                           We made it

Glacier Lilies emerge from the snow

 
We concluded our visit to Glacier National Park with a trip over Going-To-The-Sun Road with Red Bus Tours.

          Red Bus on Going-to-the Sun Road                                                   Big horn

Snowfields                                                                        Logan Pass

Now we travel north to Jasper, Alberta to meet Joyce and Alan Breach for hiking in Banff and Jasper National Parks for about a week.