Today we had an awesome breakfast at
Glacier Park Lodge and then packed up and headed for the eastern entrance to
the park at St. Mary. We entered the
park and stopped at the visitor center for some information about boat tours. We were thinking that we should take a boat
tour of St. Mary Lake. The St. Mary
entrance is on the Going to the Sun Road – the best road through the park with
awesome vistas of mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and glaciers.
Glacier Park Lodge
Since we were too early to check
into the Rising Sun Motor Inn, we thought we would drive to the St. Mary Falls
trailhead and do the .8 mile hike in to the falls to take some pictures. The whole parking area was jammed at the St.
Mary trailhead, so I consulted our map and suggested that we go to the Sun
Point Nature Trail for a .7 mile walk.
The Sun Point trail is closed! We
drove on to the Sunrift Gorge trailhead and finally found a space just barely
off the road to park.
Light coming through Sunrift Gorge
The overlook for Sunrift Gorge is
just a short (but steep) climb off the road.
We stopped for quite awhile to experiment with photo settings and got a
few good pictures of the water flowing through Sunrift Gorge. We noticed that we could hike .2 miles back
into the woods to see Baring Falls and we decided to try it. Our lesson from yesterday was: always take
your walking sticks even if the walk is short.
This proved to be a really good lesson learned.
The path was either level or
downhill and the downhill sections were rocky. A walking stick is particularly useful in a
rocky trail. When we got down to Baring
Falls, we took lots of pictures – it was beautiful with rushing water, clear
sunlight and a cool breeze. Dennis even
let me take a picture of him! Then we walked
back knowing that the way back was mostly uphill. We got back to the car feeling accomplished
and drove back toward Rising Sun to see if we could check in.
Baring Falls with Dennis and on its own
Do you remember that I mentioned
that we always have unplanned adventures during our travels? This is where we had one of those. Dennis said, “I don’t have my cell
phone.” I don’t know how well you know
Dennis, but his cell phone is very important.
I asked where he had put it. He
put it in one of his pockets (cargo pants, lots of pockets). When we were walking, his walking stick got
stuck in the cracks on a bridge and he slipped.
We both thought he must have lost the phone at that point.
I got out my phone and called his
phone just to be certain. Sure enough,
we did not hear it ringing in the car.
We turned back with the plan that I would go ahead to the falls as
quickly as possible and look for the phone there while Dennis took the path
more slowly and looked for the phone along the way. I called his phone several times while I
walked and the only message I received was “no service.” I was frustrated, but thought the phone
might be underwater and dead by now.
Several people stopped to help us
along the way back to the falls. We
learned that there is a lost and found for the park. We learned that a couple ahead of us had
spotted a bear. One man helped us search
the water under the bridge where we thought Dennis lost the phone – no
luck. We turned back and resigned
ourselves to calling Verizon to have them discontinue service – that meant
existing with only my phone!
When we got back to the car and
turned ourselves toward Rising Sun again, I started to say “look at the floor”
thinking that sometimes things slip out of pockets and lodge themselves beside
the door. As I said it, I spotted the
black phone against the black carpet of the car! We were very happy to find the bad little
phone that played a trick on us. The big
benefit from this adventure is that we walked to and from Baring Falls twice
and got a good workout in – yay us!
So, we are staying tonight and
tomorrow at the Rising Sun Motor Lodge.
It is a rustic motel in the park.
Like Glacier Park Lodge, it has no TV.
It also has no internet except at the restaurant (Two Dog Flats), so we
are forced to eat and drink while we are posting and checking our email – oh
dear what is the world coming to? We
have observed that Americans are pretty spoiled with the many amenities and
services that are available to us at all times.
It is so nice to truly unplug once in awhile and enjoy the scenery and
people and each other.
The scenery and the Rising Sun Motor Inn
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