Day 4 - Monday (7/25)

On Monday we decided to visit the Many Glacier area of the park. This was on the east side. We took the ‘Going to the Sun’ road over. The road is really a fantastic drive; likely the best I’ve ever been on. The road is literally build ‘as a shelf’ into the side of many sheer rock cliffs. There was no other drive for the remainder of the trip that could match this. It’s something that really makes Glacier National Park unique. At Many Glacier, we first did a short hike to a nearby waterfall, Appekunny Falls. One of the biggest attractions in this area is the boat rides that take you up the valley towards the Grinnell Glacier. The tour we took was comprised of two boat rides with a ranger guided tour. We first took a ride across Swift Current Lake with views of Grinnell point with the Many Glacier Hotel as our back drop. We then had a short hike to our next boat ride, which was across Lake Josephine. At the far end of the lake, we proceeded to hike across a mix of marsh, streams and woods to the foot of Grinnell Lake. The ranger did a nice job of discussing the various sites and natural attractions, including Hidden Falls. We did not see any bears on this hike but there were many in the area. The large amount of snowfall that past winter has caused a lot of trails to be closed in the park and also increased bear activity. Some of the prime trails in this area were closed due to excessive bear activity. We made our way back to the lodge and treated ourselves to dinner in the Many Glacier Lodge. We were excited to visit the lodge and eat here. The girls had read a lot about this area from the American Girl books series for Kit Kittredge. The lodge is one of the oldest in the national park system and should not be missed. We took the long ride back to our site arrived back quite late.