Glacier National Park

St Mary Lake - Wild Goose Island

After Waterton we dropped back down into Montana to do the other side of the Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park . We stayed in a RV park near Babb so we were close to both the St Mary and Many Glacier entrances to Glacier National Park. When we started on our great American adventure in our RV ten years ago, Glacier NP was one of the first parks we saw and we were in awe. When asked, we have said it was one of the favorite places we’ve visited. 

A view on the Going-to-the-Sun road

That said, now it’s been nine years and hundreds of other great places visited so we were wondering what we would think. Well, I’ll still say the Going-to-the-Sun road is the most beautiful road we've been on in North America and Glacier NP is tied, with Bryce NP and Grand Canyon NP, as the most beautiful places we’ve been to in this country.

I just want to mention, when going to any big-name national park – go in early! This way you beat the crowd. We were going in between 6:30 and 7:00 and had a peaceful time until later morning when the hordes arrived. Trailhead parking at Glacier fills by 8:30 in the summer. The lighting for pictures is so much better and you can only get water reflection pictures on calm water in the morning. 

Sun Point on St Mary Lake

Sherburne Lake along road
to Many Glacier

While at Glacier NP we drove the Going-to-the-Sun road from the east side this time (we started on the west side last time we were here). We just went a little way past Logan Pass, to the big bend, and turned around and headed back due to the west side being too narrow for my comfort with our big dually truck. We hung out at Sun Point on St Mary lake and enjoyed a fantastic setting. The next two days we went into the Many Glacier entrance and hiked. The first day we did the easy hike to Redrock Falls. We saw moose and an amazing view when we got to the lake and falls. The next day I dropped Ann off at the Many Glacier Hotel where she enjoyed the amazing views and an easy hike while I did the hike to Iceberg Lake. The scenery at the hotel and all of the hikes from Many Glacier are just amazing, especially when you get wonderful weather like we did.

View at top of Redrock Falls

Swiftcurrent Lake near hotel
early morning

Swiftcurrent Lake near hotel
early morning

We moved over to the west side of Glacier NP for a couple of days to do some hikes and see it again in some nicer weather as last time we were there it was heavy overcast most of the time. This time we just dealt with some smoke haze. We hiked the easy Johns Lake Loop trail which, in addition to seeing Johns Lake, also goes along McDonald Creek. The other trail I wanted to do was closed due to recovery from last year's fire so we decided to just chill on Lake McDonald after two weeks of on-the-go.

On trail to Iceberg Lake

Iceberg Lake

Chilling on Lake McDonald

Nine days in Canada

Manitoba Legislative Building -
Winnipeg

We crossed from Minnesota into Canada just north of Grand Portage. We drove north and worked our way to the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 17 in Ontario). We continued westerly until we got to Winnipeg, MB with a night stop over at Wabigoon Lake, ON. The Trans-Canada Highway is Highway 1 in Manitoba and west. Our drive across Ontario was wooded, rather hilly and around lots of lakes. Once we got to Manitoba we were in the great plains farmland and the land was flatter and more open.

Bridge, with restaurant, across Red
River in Winnipeg, MB

We went into Winnipeg for a day and, of course, toured the Manitoba Legislative Building (Capitol). It is a nice building but most of it gives a feel of a big, old office building. There is very little attempt at grandeur as we’ve found in many Capitols. They don’t have multiple branches of government so there is just one assembly room. 

Saskatchewan Legislative Building -
Regina

We then found a place to park near an area called “TheForks”. This is an historic area at the meeting of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers where trade has taken place for centuries. There are two large buildings that used to be used for warehousing that have been renovated into modern shops and eateries. There is also a nice park and walking/biking path along the rivers. We walked around including taking the path across the Red River, on the only bridge in the world that has a restaurant on it, over to the French Quarter of Old St. Boniface.

Queen Elizabeth II statue

We then spent a day driving to Regina, Saskatchewan where we spent a night before going into town to tour the Saskatchewan Legislative Building(Capitol). This building was very similar to the building in Winnipeg but it had marble in the main staircase and rotunda so it looked a little grander. Otherwise, it too was mainly a big office building. From there we went to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Heritage Center which is a museum providing the entire history of the group. It was a nice building and the displays were well done so we learned a lot.

RCMP Heritage Center

The same day, we made the relatively short drive to Moose Jaw to take one of the tours in the Tunnels of Moose Jaw. We did the prohibition tour which was done in a theatrical style with a couple people pretending we, the tour group, were interested in buying some of Al Capones hidden stash. It was cheesy, not particularly well done and there was no true explanation of the tunnels themselves. Therefore, it was pretty much disappointing.

Lunch stop on Middle Waterton Lake
Waterton National Park, Canada

After spending the night in Moose Jaw we drove to Medicine Hat Alberta where we spent the night before going on to our grand finale for this trip into Canada – Waterton Lakes National Park which is on the Canadian side of Glacier National Park. The two parks together comprise the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park World Heritage Site. We had a beautiful day for our drive from Medicine Hat so we started seeing mountains on the horizon 60 miles away. As we got closer we recalled why we say “the west is best” – the Rocky Mountains are awesome.

Upper Waterton Lake on Boat Tour

As we entered the park we drove by the smallest of the Waterton Lakes and stopped for lunch in a parking area with a beautiful view on Middle Waterton Lake. After hanging out there for a while we drove on to the campground in the little town of Waterton Park which is on Upper Waterton Lake. The setting is gorgeous, nestled in the mountains on the lake.

Over 70 percent of the park was burnt in 2017 and all of that is closed which includes most trails and side drives, so, over the next two days we walked around town, walked along the shore, walked over to a waterfall that isn’t very far, walked up to the Prince of Wales Lodge and did a boat tour of the lake which was fantastic. The boat tour goes the entire length of the Upper Waterton Lake so it crosses the international boundary into Glacier National Park. Our tour narrator was great and we were blessed with perfect weather. It was worth every cent.

USA / Canada Border on boat tour

Upper Waterton Lake from Prince
of Wales lodge