A Week in Big Sky Country
I’m realizing that I have to blog more frequently or else my posts will be way too long. Brevity is not my strong suit. Since it’s been a week and there is lots to share, I will limit my musings to our time in Whitefish and Glacier National Park. I am going to skip past our weekend in Bozeman (except for the photos below) and encourage you to read Ada and/or Jackson’s blogs for more details on the time we spent there.
Our original outline of the US part of our trip had Bozeman as our only stop in Montana and included time on the back end in Southern California, Arizona, and the Grand Canyon. Cameron was intrigued by the idea of spending more time in Montana and I didn’t have a lot of energy around being in Arizona in early August. So, we decided to only go as far south as San Francisco and freed up some time to explore more of big sky country. Coincidentally, my dear friend and college roommate Sarah’s younger brother, Tyler, was now the owner/operator (along with his friend Mark) of a bed and breakfast in Whitefish, Montana. Wondering if it would be a good stop, I plugged Whitefish into Google Maps and saw how close it was to Glacier National Park. Since a lot of our trip was built around visiting National Parks we decided to add a long stay there that would overlap with Independence Day. I reached out to Tyler and he got us booked at The Duck Inn Lodge.
The drive from Bozeman to Whitefish took about five hours and was mostly on winding two-lane roads. The scenery was gorgeous the entire time. By the time we reached Whitefish we all agreed that Montana was the most beautiful state we had visited so far, and that was before we laid eyes on Glacier National Park. After getting settled in at the Duck Inn Lodge, we walked downtown with Tyler to grab dinner and get our first glimpse of the town. It was great to catch up with Tyler (I first met him when he was 13) and for Cameron and the kids to get to spend some time with him. We got the full story on how he discovered Whitefish, fell in love with the place, and decided to buy the inn and put down roots in Montana.
On Tuesday morning, we all headed further north to Eureka, Montana so that Cameron and Jackson could play golf at The Wilderness Club while Ada and I explored the town and took a short trail ride on the banks of Lake Koocanusa. We were less than ten miles from the border with Canada so it was the furthest north any of us have ever been in the US. After returning to Whitefish we had a late dinner and then made our plans for visiting Glacier National Park over the next two days.
Lake McDonald at Glacier National Park.
Even though Glacier is half the acreage of Yellowstone, it seems like it takes a lot more time to explore. The Going to the Sun Road, an engineering marvel that is nearing 100 years old, is a two-lane road that traverses the park from west to east and climbs almost 3500 feet of elevation. Its path winds along the sides of the u-shaped valleys carved by Ice Age glaciers and at times has sheer cliff drop-offs that are only protected by stone or wooden guard rails. In ideal conditions, the 50 mile drive takes two hours one way. When you add in stops to take in the astounding views or hike one of the many marked trails you can spend your entire day just to go back and forth across the park. We spent our first day in Glacier driving the iconic route and doing a short 4.6 mile hike to Avalanche Lake. We were all blown away by what surrounded us. Getting to see the park from the higher vantage point on the Going to the Sun Road allows you to grasp the grandeur of the landscape in a way you wouldn’t appreciate if you had to stay in the valley below. The change in perspective lends to the awe just as much as the breathtaking landscape.
For our second and final day in the park (Fourth of July) we decided to attempt one of the highest rated hikes, Grinnell Glacier. It’s a 10.6 mile hike (round trip) that gains over 2,000 feet of elevation and gets you within a hundred yards of one of the parks 25 remaining glaciers. The hike is only accessible from the Many Glacier entrance on the eastern side of the park, a 2.5 hour drive from Whitefish. Tyler had previously done the hike and assured us it was worth the drive and effort. We were up and out of the inn before 8:00 that day and made good time getting to the parking lot. When we arrived we saw that there was an ice and snow warning for Grinnell Glacier that discouraged going past the 3.6 mile mark (one-way). We decided to just go as far as we could and then turn back if it looked too dangerous. I’m so glad we decided to go through with the hike as the views absolutely worth it. The entire landscape, including the wildflowers on either side of us, the valleys below, and the peaks above, was picturesque and looked like a scene from a movie.
When we got to the 3.6 mile mark we saw the snow and ice hazard referenced in the warning sign. There was a section of the trail just past a waterfall that was covered by a section of packed snow. Despite the warnings, hikers had created a 25 yard narrow path across the vertical packed snow that connected back to the trail. There was a 4 or 5 foot wide crevice between the snowpack and a rocky ledge that you had to cross as well. If you slipped at any point you would slide down over 1,000 feet, hitting some rocks along the way. There were two park rangers at the spot when we arrived, warning people of how dangerous it was to proceed. We all agreed that in no way was it worth the risk and decided to turn back around. I’m sure if we had done it the access to the glacier and even grander views may have seemed worth it. But, we also felt like it would have been really irresponsible as parents to model that kind of risk-taking and to complete disrespect the knowledge and authority of the park rangers. We want our kids to be willing to take risks and even fail, but when failure may lead to serious injury or death we step on the brakes. Even with cutting the hike short, we still ended up doing almost ten miles with some big elevation changes so we were all pretty fried by the time we made it back to the Duck Inn.
We left Whitefish late Friday morning. So much of our enjoyment of our time there was because of our stay at the Duck Inn Lodge. Tyler, Mark, and Alyssa do an amazing job at anticipating the needs of all their guests and going above and beyond to make everyone feel welcome. And, our experience was not because of our connection to Tyler. We saw them interact with many other guests and their desire for everyone to enjoy Whitefish is authentic. They are great ambassadors for the town and Glacier National Park. And, as noted in Jackson’s blog, they make killer waffles for breakfast every morning. We will definitely be returning to the Duck Inn Lodge and Whitefish, hopefully in ski season this time. We’d love to get a big group together to rent out the entire inn for a long weekend as we know it will be a great experience for all. A huge thanks to Tyler, Mark, and Alyssa for the hospitality.
Ada, Jackson and I with Tyler in the breakfast area at the Duck Inn Lodge.
After a quick stop by Kootenai Falls (recommended by Mark), we made our way to Spokane, Washington for a quick one night stay on our way to Seattle. Cameron and Jackson got in a round of golf while Ada and I got caught up on laundry, discovered our new favorite grocery store (Huckleberry Market), and visited the flower gardens in Manito Park. While we didn’t have much time there, Spokane seems like a city on the rise that could be enjoyable to explore for a weekend. We’re now driving through central Washington on the way to Seattle and it surprisingly looks a lot like the prairies in South Dakota. For a state known for its fruit production, there is a lot of grain and hay planted in a big chunk of the state. We’re in Seattle for three days before we go into Canada to visit Vancouver and Victoria and do some whale watching.
