Day 2: Havre, MT to Glacier National Park, MT (St. Mary)
Mason and I were a little groggy this morning with the time
change and with Woodrow’s escapades last night.
I slept poorly and the kids were up early. After they were restless for a while, I
grabbed the iPad and got into Theo’s bed with them, to try to let Mason get
some sleep. We grabbed a big breakfast
in the lobby of the Best Western and tried to fill the kids’ tummies. We headed on our way for the 3.5 hour drive
to East Glacier (St. Mary’s).
The drive was very pretty.
It was flat, hilly, and again we followed along the train tracks. The kids dug in to their various books and
toys that I set-up in the bucket between their carseats. Theo loves looking out with his binoculars
(Thanks Aunt Chelsea- maybe Woodrow will get a turn one day)! The drive was a little over 3 hours, so we
made a last minute bathroom/lunch stop at a McDonalds and enjoyed the scenic
drive into the park.
For two nights, we stayed at the St. Mary Lodge. Since we added a second night to our original
reservation, we ended up switching to a room in their Great Bear section, and
it was a beautiful room! We had a first
floor room with a patio looking out at a creek, and there were two beds, and
room for us to tuck Woodrow in his pack n play out of sight. The room was very woodsy feeling and perfect
for us over the two days. We unloaded
all of our junk and headed a little bit more North in the park to the Many
Glacier area.
As part of my trip planning, I had scoped out some trails I
thought would be best for our family based on length, and climb. We went for our first hike on the Red Rock
Falls trail that starts past the Swiftcurrent hotel. Its description was that it was 3 miles round
trip with gentle slopes. It was a little
chilly so we bundled in layers, Mason threw Woodrow in the backpack carrier and
we headed off. The walk was really
nice! There were definitely some less “gradual”
slopes, and some hungry children, who we let snack along the way, but it was a
really nice hike.
Theo was quite the hit of the hike! He had his binoculars out and he was ready to
go, so almost everyone we passed commented that he had great binoculars. Which of course turned into a discourse with
Theo about “what’s that guys name,” and “that lady didn’t say nice binoculars…” We were told by several people on the trail
that there was a moose and baby moose out on the lake, so we were pretty
excited, but of course by the time we got there, no moose to be seen, but we did see a deer at the lake on our return. The falls were really gorgeous, and so was
the lake area. Theo was also intrigued
by several other hikers’ walking sticks and he really wanted some, so he found
a stick to walk with at one point. When
we headed back to the car we were able to see some mountain goats high up on a
hill and there was actually a wilderness watcher in the parking lot when we
returned, who had binoculars set up (and other gadgets) and was leading a talk
about the mountain goats. So, that was
pretty cool.
By this time we were pretty tired, so we went to a small restaurant
called the Park Café. I had a tasty
pesto, Mason had a burger, and the boys picked at a Turkey Sandwich. After that we sleepily went back to our room,
bathed the kiddos, and headed to bed pretty uneventfully. Since there was no wifi in our rooms, it was
a pretty quick bedtime for us adults to, but not before some tasty homemade
apple pie from that we had gotten to go.
Phew day 2!
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