Glacier National Park & Banff

Ruth and I (Drew) love to sail but we also enjoy hiking and the great outdoors. I completed a bicycle trip through the Glacier National Park (GNP) area 8-years ago and always wanted to go back. Whitefish Montana is one of my favorite towns. Ruth went with me this time and we turned it into a hiking trip.

Our first stop was in Whitefish Montana. We found a great B&B called the Garden Wall Inn. Garden Wall is named for one of the famous areas in GNP. Our hosts were great with a short walk into town and very comfortable accommodations.

Garden Wall Inn

Hike Up Whitefish Mountain Resort

Deer

It was cold for early July with winter jackets, hats and gloves being the norm. We decided to hike to the top of Whitefish Mountain Resort and enjoy the views. After the long hike, we took the Gondola down. I had an excellent emu burger at the top of the mountain and Ruth got to watch the world cup soccer game.

Snow at the top

Tired after a long hike

New Friends

Being sailors we decided to stop down at the local lake to check out the boating scene. It was mostly power boats but we did run into one couple that was renaming their boat (notice the branch on the front of the boat) and needed some help with the renaming ceremony. We were happy to help them tie up their boat, go through the ceremony, and share some rum with them and Neptune. Good luck with the new boat!

From Whitefish it was off to Waterton Lakes Peace Park in Canada. This is also part of GNP but on the Canadian side. We stayed in the Prince of Wales Hotel and did some interesting hiking. They had a huge fire last year but firefighters managed to save the town and this historic hotel. Many of the trails were closed but we did manage to hike a few. 

View from our room, not bad

Prince of Wales

Still cold, July 4th!

Fire Damage

Next stop was Banff. The town is pretty busy but we found a nice little place to stay called the Banff Avenue B&B. You did need to drive out of town to get to the hiking trails but it wasn't far. This time of year it's also light until about 11:00 pm (23:00 for you sailors) so there's lots of time to enjoy the day. Eating dinner at 10 did take a little getting used to though.

B&B

Elk

Lake outside Banff

Leading edge of a glacier

Tea House after a long hike

After Banff it was down to the east side of GNP. We stayed at St. Mary's and Many Glacier. They had a "problem" bear at St. Mary's that the park ranges kept trying to scare away. It is very important to not have the bears associated people with food. As they say, "a fed bear is a dead bear". By this time it was warming up and winter coats were put away.

Rustic cabin and our vessel for the two weeks

Lots of snow still

Sheep

Hidden Lake - we found it

Ruth with a novel approach to going down

Grizzly county, we carried pepper spray and made noise

View from Many Glacier area

Little Red Hiking Hood

Iceberg Lake

Beautiful Vistas

This was a fantastic trip and highly recommended. They say in a dozen years there will be no official glaciers left in GNP so now is the time to visit. Hope you enjoyed the hiking and next blog back to sailing!