DFT25 - Glacier part 2

 Saturday was reserved for spending time in the St. Mary and Many Glacier area of the park. We started the day driving across the Going to the Sun road. Stopped at the visitors center in St. Mary and watched the video on the park. Then we had lunch at Johnsons. It was part of the main reason I wanted to go to that side of the park. When Daniel and I were there in 2016 we had their famous Huckleberry Ice Cream pie and were so excited for the girls to have it. Unfortunately they weren’t serving dessert at lunch ☹️. But we did have a huckleberry cream fizz and huckleberry lemonade to drink 🤷🏻‍♀️

Then we drove on up to Many Glacier. Several of the trails are closed due to snow and bear activity. We walked as far around the lake as we could go before we had to turn around. We did finally have our family picture made in front of the sign! Then for dinner we stopped at the Sunflower Cafe for BBQ and it was sooooo good! I’ve figured out that most of the restaurants are tied to a resort or campground and it’s hard to tell if the food will be good or not. But this one did not disappoint! 

Sunday was Canada Day! This was the day our kids were most looking forward too! Because anyone who knows us knows that all the girls have told anyone is that they were going to Canada. We left at 5:30am to go across the Going to the Sun road. Unfortunately we didn’t see any wildlife that early. On Chief Mt. Hwy we got stuck in a cow jam. And it made us miss seeing a moose by about 2 mins. 

Getting across the border was pretty quick. And we were finally to Waterton Lakes….and well it was a pretty big let down. Two things 1) that side of the park is way different than the US side 2) they allow townships within their parks and it was basically a mini GBurg 🤷🏻‍♀️. We did have a dinner reservation at the Prince of Wales Hotel. And our dinner was the best part of our Canadian Experience! 

But the drive back home was the best. We saw a moose for 2.5 seconds. Then once we were back on the Going to the Sun road we saw another Grizzly, Big Horn Sheep, and a black bear! So we ended the evening on a high note. 

Monday we slept in because we were tired for getting up early on Sunday and getting home late. Well apparently while we were in Canada everyone arrived in Glacier for their vacation because it took up 35 mins to get entry into the park on Monday and missed our entry to the Going to the Sun Road by about ten mins. Which meant we couldn’t get on the road until after 3pm. So we had a breakfast picnic. Shopped around Apgar Village and visited the Nature Center. EG turned in our book to receive her junior ranger badge! And then we decided to drive to Whitefish.  It was a fun little town with some good Tshirt shops. We had dinner at Three Forks again, since it was our last night. And even though we meant to go back into the park one last time…we never made it. But really I don’t think another drive could top the one from Sunday night. 

Tuesday we checked out of the AirBNB which was awesome! It was essentially a storage shed that had been converted to a tiny home. It was the perfect size for the four of us. The host went above and beyond to make our stay fantastic. There were fresh flowers in the cabin when we arrived. She kept firewood stocked outside in the private backyard so we could use the fire pit. Bear spray was in the cabin for us to use so we didn’t have to buy our own can when we got to the park. And it was only ten mins from the West Glacier entrance. I would highly recommend it and would stay there again! 

We had breakfast for the second morning at Critter Canyon coffee and it is awesome amazing. The Huckleberry puff tart is to die for! 

And continued our journey back to Missoula. When we were booking a place to stay in Missoula for the night it was hard to find anything relatively inexpensive. So we finally just booked something and well now I know Shania Twain is in concert here tomorrow night 🤦🏻‍♀️ We had dinner downtown at Cranky Sam’s and it was Bingo night! So of course we played!

Off to the airport in the morning at 5am to head back to TN and this vacation is officially over 😢