Glacier National Park with Special Guest Brad Kopek

We left the beauty of the Grand Tetons, driving through Yellowstone to make our way to Glacier National Park. We stopped off at Old Faithful since the day was sunny and free of snow we wanted to experience the geyser once again. Boy did we get to see a geyser go “off”, just not Old Faithful. The Beehive is an amazing sight to see and does not go off very often but we got to see it! The little spout next to the Beehive starts right before the larger geyser as a warning that the Beehive is about to go "off".

After a very long day of driving we found a friendly Wal-Mart to “camp” at for the night, thanks again Wal-Mart. The next day we arrived in Hungry Horse, MT where we were a few minutes from the airport and the Kennel where the puppies were going to stay when we went home for the weekend. Mom P. sold her house and we were going home to help move her and to attend Lisa’s cousin Jonathan’s Graduation Party – Congrats Jonathan! GO MSU!

We exchanged 2 guests for one and arrived in Glacier National Park just in time to pick up Brad (Lisa’s Brother) from the very small airport in Kalispell, MT. On the way to the airport Lisa got pulled over, again, for the Jeeps back lights not working, always something on this trip. Troy took the Jeep in the next morning to get everything fixed, ask Troy about the experience, he would love to tell you about the garage, very interesting! When Troy finally made it back from the garage we headed to Fish Creek Park, our new home for the next 4 days within Glacier National Park. Here is the RV “squeezed” into our spot, we were a few inches over there maximum length, oops! We loved our spot, right off the river and the sound of the rushing water was heaven to listen to while falling asleep.


After settling in to the campground we headed to Apgar Visitor Center to get the scoop on the park. Going-to-the-sun Road was going to be closed for a long time, 100 foot snow drifts were blocked the summit of the road. For those of you not familiar with the park this road is the main attraction and normally opens the first week of June, we were there the 3rd week of June and the park was still trying to plow and repair the roads. Below is a picture of the road from our Helicopter ride you will read about further into the blog.

We drove the 13 miles that were open on our end of the park and hiked to Avalanche Lake. Not such an “easy” hike as the park claimed but worth the view once we arrived at the Lake. We also explored the Trail of Cedars, massive trees and the Avalanche River was flowing strong, great nature walk.


After dinner we headed up the logging road to Polebridge, what a strange little “outpost”, Brad and Troy loved it! According to Troy, “so close to the end of the earth that we saw hippies”. Reminded us of the small towns we saw when we were in Alaska. The one and only bar in town was a trip. Lisa asked for a Coors Light (an empty one was sitting on the bar) and got the following response “If you want shit beer we have PBR & Schmidt” – wow! They did have an open mic night with locals performing, not bad and the atmosphere was the best, dogs roaming everywhere, guy with a snake around his neck (Lisa was not happy at all about the snake) and folks playing volleyball.


The following morning it was time to drive. Since the “Going-to-the-Sun” Road was closed we made the trek around the outside of the park. What a drive, it took us 2 ½ hours to get to St. Mary’s for lunch at Park Place Café. “Pie for Strength” is their motto, so yummy! We headed to Many Glaciers to hike the Swift Current Trail – at least part of it. Such a beautiful day with Mountains & Glaciers all around us! Redrock falls was “glorious”; the water was so clean and crisp. We spent a good hour lounging around the falls, well at least Lisa was lounging, Troy and Brad were busy trying to get the perfect picture.


On our way back we spotted a Moose and 2 babies across the lake, what a sight! Look at her coat, she was molting!


Course we were not happy about the people disturbing the Moose and her little ones, they forced her into the water, not smart on their part, they could have gotten seriously hurt being that close to the mom, take a look at the right side of the picture, you will see 1 of the 3 people invading the moose's space.


In total we hiked 5 miles while enjoying the beautiful Montana mountainside. On our way home a black bear ran in front of the car, hey it counts for an animal sighting! We stopped at a “nameless” waterfall along Hwy 2 to let the photographers do their thing. Brad was trying a few techniques with the water and in the meantime Troy decided we should get our picture with the fall. Next thing we know we are getting soaked by the water – talk about cold glacier waters – freezing is more like it.

We also stopped at “Goat Lick Overlook” and saw 3 Mountain Goats. They come to the side of the mountain to “lick” the minerals and salts in the mountainside, not sure how they stay on the side of the mountain but they do. (See picture below from Helicopter Ride)

It was now time for us to take a Helicopter Ride over the Park. Lisa asked Brad to recap the flight as Lisa could not put into words her thoughts on our “near death” experience:
The weather was sketchy and we were already turned away for our early morning flight. The Pilot called and asked if we wanted to take the flight around noon before the afternoon clouds and weather moved in. After missing 3 chances in Alaska last summer to take a Heli tour we decided to take the chance rather than waiting till the next day (which turned out to be clear & calm). Lift off was a breeze and the approach to the parks boundary went without incident. Moving up the Middle Fork of the Flat Head we flew southeast towards Lincoln Lake, Jackson Glacier and Sperry Chalet (still buried in snow). Our first sense of danger came when our pilot banked the Heli severely and the G-forces climbed as he tired to get us a better view of the two impossibly perched Mountain Goats.


Senses alert, hands clenched on seats, fellow passengers, thin air or anything that could give a sense of security, none worked. As we continued our way through the 7,000 foot peaks along the Continental Divide we started to understand the nature of our decision to fly on this day. Flipping between jaw dropping views, the 30 foot sudden drops, shifting high mountain winds we clicked cameras, tired to calm ourselves with deep breaths and in general, tired not to soil ourselves. Cresting the Continental Divide and reaching Bownan Lake in the northern half of the park we could see clear to Canada and Prince of Whales Hotel perched above Upper Waterton Lake. Turning south we passed more familiar places to us like Lake McDonald (our campground was near the lake) and Avalanche Creek where we had hiked the previous day. Thoroughly scared, bodies drained from the emotional and physical overload we returned to the Helipad in West Glacier. Lasting only an hour, our aerial tour of Glacier will leave an impression that will last a lifetime. Jim, our pilot, stayed calm on the surface but upon return stated that the winds were truly bad. The final sign of this was his statement that although his wife had joined him on countless trips, she would never fly in weather like this. To our relief we remembered our stock of beer in the RV and returned to camp for a few decompression suds and rest.

Although the flight made us rethink going on a Helicopter ride again we did get some amazing pictures, well Brad and Troy did, don’t think Lisa’s hands ever stopped clutching the sides of her seat. Check out the few photos below, ask us to show you the rest sometime, they are magnificent!

Upon exiting the plane our pilot, Jim said to Lisa, wow you look better than I expected, I expected you to be "Green".

Here is a rare picture of Brad, since he is always behind the lens and hardly ever shots photos of people this is one of the few photos we have of Brad with us in Glacier.

Since it was Sunday the “Going-to-the-Sun” Road was open for bike traffic and Troy was not going to miss the opportunity to make the ride. The road was a mess with tons of work needing to be done before it can be opened for vehicle traffic. A glorious 3000 foot climb to the summit gave Troy a very sore ass and the most amazing pictures of 2 Big Horn Sheep, one which started to charge him and the most awesome views for the Park. Charger after the encounter with the sheep he pedaled faster and came across many deer and spectacular views.

Here is a picture of the Weeping Wall Troy rode up to along his summit journey.

June 23rd brought to you by guest writer Brad Kopek: Leaving Lisa to her lounging Troy and I headed to Polebridge again, for hippie fest part II. After arriving via the North Fork Outside Road we grabbed a quick lunch at the Polebridge Mercantile (focaccia bread, the hippies have the best) and headed into the northern most U.S. entrance to the park. The Jeep came in most handy as we bumped and wiggled our way down to “Hidden Meadows”. This landscape burns regularly so the small tightly packed 20 years old trees gave dramatic views through the Grizzly Country. We arrived at the meadow, straight out of a picture book … low laying lake, mountain crest background and shielded trees. Without a moment to realize what was happening I yelled “WOLF!” and our cameras started clicking away … an adult black wolf with 2 young pups howling and barking at us the wolves made their escape leaving out heart rates to return to normal. We checked in with the park rangers on our way back and they confirmed our belief that we truly did see and experience something unique for we were only 20 feet from the wolves. We celebrated with several beers at Northern Lights Lounge (the hippie bar from earlier) and then returned to Fish Creek and told Lisa of our adventures.


Our last day in Glacier was a lazy day spent packing up the RV (which doesn’t take long) and heading back to Hungry Horse where the RV is going to stay while we go home. It was a funny feeling to be leaving our home-away-from-home to go home. We also took the puppies to the Kennel, we were a bit nervous leaving them when we were not that familiar with the kennel but we checked the place out before we left and of course they were fine when we returned!