Glacier National Park - Side trips and campgrounds

After braving the traffic of Apgar village and the visitor's center when we first arrived at Glacier National Park we decided we were up for a little adventure, and hopefully less traffic, so we headed out for what turned out to be a pounding drive on a gravel road up to Bowman Lake. The most direct route to the lake was under construction, so we too the road north, just outside the park to the west.

The drive was worth it, the lake is beautiful, and there were a surprising number of people there, considering the rough and dusty route we all had to take to get there. There are quite a few campsites at the lake, but due to the road the campers are primarily tents and backpackers.

On the way home we stopped at the cafe in Pole Bridge for a light dinner and beer.

This was the dogs' first time in a restaurant setting and they coped quite nicely. The occasional french fry that happened to find its way to the grass probably had something to do with their contentment.

Pole Bridge is an older community, judging by the number of old, weathered abandoned buildings we passed on the way up. Because it's fairly remote it isn't as "touristy" but has a nice authentic feel to it. It does have a few remaining residents who seem to rely largely on the summer tourists for their business.






A few days later, while staying on the east side, we opted for a boat tour of St. Mary Lake.

Wild Goose Island in St. Mary Lake

Our captain, Sara, made the tour really interesting with her great narration.

We learned a lot about the park history, including details of the fire that burned around the edges of the lake almost exactly a year ago. Our boat was the Little Chief, a 90 year old, all wood boat. It's quite a treasure to the park folks, as it is quite rare, and when the fire broke out the boat was very close to the flames. They took great pains to protect it from flying embers, and the forest service allowed the owner to come in and take care of it and the other boat equipment even though the area was closed off during their battle with the blaze.

Little Chief, on the right, and one of the burned trees

Looking at the vegetation that has filled in we were reminded again of how quickly nature revives an area after a fire.  

Camping in Glacier
Bears are a major concern here, and so Park rangers and hosts are adamant about food storage. They insist that anything that might be attractive to a bear (food, cosmetics, etc.) be stored in a vehicle.

The rangers we talked to on the west side insisted their bears don't know how to get into cars, which made us laugh. We had a bear crawl into the back of the truck last year at June Lake, CA.

When we checked into our campground on the east side we got the same directions on how to store things, and when we sounded skeptical about their bears not knowing how to get into a vehicle we learned why that is true.

In Glacier National Park, if a bear gets its hands on human food, by any method, the bear is exterminated. That's how they have prevented bears from teaching their young how to get into cars and houses, and beg for food. If a camper gives them food, in other words, they are signing the bear's death warrant. Pretty sobering, but apparently it works.

Don't feel too sorry for the bears, they won't go hungry. The woods here are full of yummy bear-appropriate food, like these ripe service berries. Our campground on the east side was full of tall bushes just covered with the fruit.

Fish Creek Campground
When Steve made our campsite reservations he chose our sites based on a map and skimpy description, as most park visitors have to do.

For our stay on the west side we were reserved in Loop C at Fish Creek, in a site right on the lake. Loop C  is a "no generator" loop. We don't like hearing generators any more than the next guy, and we can rely on our solar panels to deliver what little power we need. . . usually. Well, not so much here.

Due to the National Park Service's let it be natural approach the campgrounds on the west side, which receives a lot of rain, the forest is so overgrown and full of downed and sickly timber that little light reaches the ground.

Lake McDonald just on the other side of those trees in the photo - you can see a bit of blue and shiny light. That's all we could see without hiking through the trees (there's no trail from our site, and the dogs can't go to the lake anyway.)

Our site was so dark we worked by lantern light in the trailer most of the time during the day. The fact that we had to shoe-horn the trailer into the site is just an aside.

The older parks are all still functioning with the sites carved out years ago, before the larger rigs were common. We were lucky in that we could make it fit. If we'd reserved several of the other sites we might have been unable to fit our equipment in at all. 

By contrast, our nice long, level site on the east side of the park in St. Mary campground was also a no generator area, but not to worry.

We had so much sun we were fully charged up by early afternoon on the first day. We were surrounded by wildflowers of all kinds and birds enjoying the serviceberry bushes loaded with ripe fruit. Perfect!

There's a trail from the campground over the river to the visitor center, which made a nice little walk.

There was also a little trail that led from the campground down to the St. Mary River (which connects two halves of the lake.) The bridge at this point is an excellent example of the beautiful stone work seen all over the park. Bridges, terracing, tunnels, all blend beautifully with their surroundings, and are wonderful examples of skilled workmanship.

Bridge over the St. Mary River