Glacier: Many Glacier

When you finish your trip over the Going-to-the-Sun Road, you can head north from St. Mary for about 9 miles and find another road that will take you back into the park. This is a dead-end road and, although it doesn’t go far, it does go to Many Glacier, where the beautiful century-old Many Glacier Hotel rests on the shore of Swiftcurrent Lake surrounded by steep mountain peaks.  Brochures like to refer to this part of the park as the “Switzerland of North America.” Although I think that is somewhat of a stretch, there’s no denying that this is a spectacular location.

Leuker Family Reunion in Glacier National Park
Many Glacier Hotel

The hotel was being remodeled this season.  The main entrance and south wing were closed so we were routed to the north wing near the gift shops and restaurant to check in.  This part of the hotel has already been remodeled.  The rooms are rustic but comfortable.  Our room didn’t face the lake, but it had a nice balcony where we watched horses pass by in the evening after a day of taking tourists for a ride.  The most interesting part of the room was a funky old shower that was so complicated it required a set of instructions.

Ninety-three percent of Glacier National Park is managed as wilderness. Although the Many Glacier Hotel is nice, to feel the pulse of a magnificent place like this you need to spend some time surrounded by nature rather than walls.  You don’t have to go far to be embraced by trees, hear the birds and flowing water, and taste wild berries along the trail.  John Muir said it much more eloquently:

Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter.

If you’re looking for an alternative to hiking, another way to get out on the trail is to ride one of those horses we saw from our balcony.  Most of the group saddled up one morning and went out for a ride led by Swan Mountain Outfitters.  You’re not allowed to take photographs on the horse ride.  That’s understandable; I could see myself making an unscheduled head-first dismount if I tried to do that.  So, while the riders went off on their steeds, I put on my boots and headed out to Apikuni Falls.

The Apikuni Falls hike is only a 1.7 mile round trip.  It starts out across a flat meadow, but soon the meadow gives way to woods and “flat” is no longer an apt descriptor.  The trail is rated “easy” but some sections of it are quite steep and rocky.  When you’re really tired of going up the steep grade, the trail finally starts to level off.  Then it emerges from the trees and you can see and hear the falls in the distance.

From here you only have to walk down a short distance before the trail delivers you to Apikuni Creek.  This is a nice place to sit on the rocks, rest up a bit, and enjoy looking at the falls and the colorful rocks in the creek.  You cannot, however, actually see the base of the falls from this vantage point.  Fortunately, many other people were obviously chagrined at this state of affairs and scrambled up the rocks for a better view.  All you have to do is follow their unofficial trail to get a view of the entire falls, which leaps from a cliff, falls to the slope below, and cascades down to a clear pool at the bottom.  The pool then flows over another rock face to finish it’s descent.  A great waterfall — well worth the scramble.  From this vantage point you also have a nice view back out to the valley with more mountains in the distance.

A few miles up the road from Many Glacier is Swiftcurrent, where you can find a lodge, restaurant, gift store (with ice cream!), and more trail heads.  The Swiftcurrent Pass Trail starts here. It’s 14.2 miles round-trip and rated “strenuous.”  But, of course, you don’t have to hike the whole thing. We sure didn’t.  The section we did hike was relatively level, so that was a bonus.  Signs near the start of this trail warn of grizzly bears, so it’s a good idea to be noisy on a trail like this.  Sorry, John Muir!  Fishercap Lake is on a short side trail only a few tenths of a mile from the trail head.  We were told to stop and look for moose there.  When we stopped there at 2 PM the lake was mooseless.  When we returned at 7 PM, however, we were delighted to see a moose casually eating grass in the middle of the shallow lake.  So, if you go looking for moose, try hiking in the evening to improve your luck.

Some stretches of the Swiftcurrent Pass Trail run through peaceful groves of young aspen and patches of thimbleberries and huckleberries.  This was berry season so they were a treat.  Eventually (1.7 miles from the trail head, according to the guidebook) the trail reaches and runs along the north shore of Redrock Lake.  In the distance, at the west end of the lake, you can catch a glimpse of Redrock Falls.   As the trail curves around the west end of the lake you’ll encounter some red rocks — no surprise there!  Finally, a short side trail leads down to the falls.  This falls is also made up of sections where water cascades down rocky steps to eventually reach the creek that will take it to the lake.  The trail ascends here as the landscape rises to the top of the falls.  Some of us went a little further to take in more views of mountains and glaciers before returning to join the others and follow the trail back.

Since this was our last day in the park, we decided to squeeze in one more hike.  From the hotel it’s a short walk to the 2.9 mile Swiftcurrent Lake Nature Trail that loops around the lake.  This was definitely level and easy.  As you walk around the lake, the trail provides a good view back to the hotel.  For some reason, this distant view made the structure look more massive to me than when we were right beside it.  As we were finishing the hike, clouds moved in and darkened the sky.  Then the sun started to fight its way back, casting some “bible sky” over the lake.

Early the next morning we drove to East Glacier, dropped off the rental car, and caught the eastbound Empire Builder.

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