Glacier National Park (Part 1)

Glacier National Park is in NW Montana sharing its northern border with Canada. It is 1,562 square miles, about twice the size of the Great Smoky Mountains NP.  It is the 10th most visited Park and the 12th largest national park (5th in the lower 48).

We flew into Kalispell, Montana on August 13th and drove the 30 miles to Glacier the next day.

Glacier has about 25 glaciers.  That is changing very quickly.  Estimates range from the year 2020 to 2030 that all the glaciers will be gone.  Better start making plans now if you have always wanted to go there and see glaciers !!

On a boat ride, a passenger asked a Park Ranger if will they have to re-name the park. She didn't hesitate with the answer: glaciers were responsible for making the park the way it is, so, no, the name will still apply.

We stayed in 3 different areas in the Park, so I made a post for each one.  This one is the Lake McDonald area, which is the west entrance.
Part 2 is Logan Pass and Rising Sun (just past is Saint Mary, the east entrance).
Part 3 is Many Glacier

PS: I had several good portrait photos, but Google is having trouble displaying them correctly, so
       I did not include them.

West entrance

Lake McDonald looking south. The Lake is 1 mile wide, 16 miles long and 472' deep

Lake McDonald looking north

Inland marsh along a trail around the lake

Caroline, the Glacier National Park nomad

McDonald Creek

Break time along the creek

Always seem to find a place that we are sure gnomes are hiding

Off the beaten path

If you wait too long to make reservations, you get this instead of....

this, the Lake McDonald lodge.

Sipping hot coffee in the lodge on a cold morning

Avalanche Lake.  On the way to our next stop

Heaven's Peak (8,987') from the 'Going-to-the-Sun' road (described in Part 2)