Glacier National Park - Part 2

On July 4^th, we moved over to Johnson’s RV Park, just outside the East Glacier entrance.  After lunch we drove over and hiked to St Mary’s Falls and continued up to Virginia Falls.  Less than 4 miles for the hike and much easier than the two mile hike the day before.  The wildflowers have been very pretty throughout the park but were very noticeable along this hike. Virginia Falls is at the top of the creek which flows down to the St Mary’s falls with several intermediate falls/cascades in the middle.  The campground owner told us there would be fireworks over the lake which the campground overlooks.  We were not sure what to expect.  Just a note, it does not get dark here until after 10:00 PM.  Around 9:30 we noticed little fireworks at different places along the shoreline.  So it seems that everyone brings there fireworks to the lake edge and shoots them off.    So for over 30 minutes we had splashes of color all around the lake.  At 10:00 the KOA across the street did some bigger and higher fireworks.  Not knowing what to expect we were not prepared to take pictures.  We went to bed and the fireworks and celebrating continued long into the night.

 St Mary's Falls

 Rapids along the trail to Virginia Falls

 Virginia Falls

On July 5^th, we slept in after our late evening.  Wayne and I rode the shuttle on the Going to the Sun Road from the St Mary’s Visitor Center back to the Loop where we had ridden to when the road was closed.  So we completed the entire road!  We spent the most time at Logan Pass.  The snow in the area was over 6 feet tall!  They had cleared the roads, sidewalks and parking lots.  The trails that started from Logan Pass were all covered with snow.  Wayne was disappointed to not be able to hike the Highline Trail, so that will be our excuse to come back.  Others were excited for the snow and were carrying their skis and snowboards up the hill.

July 6^th was our last day in the US portion of Glacier National Park.  We drove up to the lodge at Many Glacier where we took a boat/hiking trip.  You ride a boat across the lake, hike for a ¼ mile to another lake, ride in a second boat and then hike 1.25 miles over to Glacier Lake.  It was a beautiful day for the trip and the scenery was spectacular.

From the hill overlooking Many Glacier Lodge

Next stop Waterton, Alberta, Canada !

Note while in Canada we will have cell phone and texting but no data on our phone,  so we will be on the lookout for WiFi hotspots and will post blogs when we can.  We will be in Canada for about a month.