Going to the Sun with a 4th of July Weekend in Montana, Part 1

With one more holiday weekend out in Utah, Susan and I decided to take advantage of our (relative) proximity to Montana and venture northward for the long 4th of July holiday.  We hit the road Wednesday evening with the main focus of the trip being to visit Glacier National Park.
Wednesday evening, we set off after work and drove toward Butte, MT.  In Idaho near the Montana border we came drove under cloudy skies and through the first significant rainfall we’ve seen in weeks.  As the air cleared about 2 hours south of Butte, we were provided a beautiful sunset to guide us to our overnight destination and caught most of the Butte fireworks show as we were settling into our hotel for the night.

 
Montana sunset

Butte fireworks from our Motel 6 hotel room

Thursday morning it was back on the road bright and early to make sure we could drop Derby off at his boarding site (PBR Kennels…the official beer kennel of summer?) in Kalispell.  Most of the route from Butte to Kalispell was on back highways through small lake towns, very scenic.
By 10am we had arrived in Kalispell and dropped off Derby for a couple days, then ran some quick errands before heading into Glacier NP just to the Northwest of town.  Today the plan was to just view the “tip of the iceberg” (pun intended) so we wouldn’t be venturing far into the park.  After driving through a plethora of tourist towns and huckleberry themed souvenir shops, we hit the park boundary.

Only a couple miles past the West Glacier park entrance we came across the edge of Lake McDonald, a long and narrow glacier fed lake that dominates the western valley of the portion of the park viewed from the Going to the Sun Road.  The Lake McDonald Lodge would be another 8 miles or so along the lake and was our main destination for the day.
Once arriving at the lodge, Susan and I wandered through the lodge lobby and to the back porch where we grabbed some rustic rocking chairs overlooking the boat dock and had a picnic lunch.  Not long after lunch we were scheduled to board the DeSmet, a tour boat that has been in service since the 1930’s for a guided lake cruise.  The tour was interesting but the highlight was our guide who had been giving this same tour for the past 50 years.  He tended to ramble at times and you could tell he was a little too proud of his catchphrase “…a land formed from water, ice, and fire!”, but he was certainly well informed and amusing to listen to.  As we cruised we were able to take in dramatic views of the glacier carved mountains to the west, the forested hillsides to the north and south, and the evidence of a 2006 forest fire on the northwest shore.

Picnic lunch

DeSmet on the lake

Our tour guide

On the rooftop of the boat during our trip

Back on dry land Susan and I were feeling pretty rundown from the early start to the day, so we ventured back toward Kalispell with a quick stop at Apgar Village, the first lodging area on the west side of the park.  En route back to town, we made a pit stop at HuckLand for some ice cream and to ogle all things huckleberry.

Totem pole outside the lodge

Horseback riders

By Lake McDonald
 
Huckland     &     Susan enjoying huckleberry ice cream

Late afternoon back in Kalispell and it was time for a nap!  We lazed around the hotel until around 7pm before venturing out for dinner.  The plan for the evening was to catch the Whitefish Lake fireworks about 20 miles to our north.  Looking for dinner options in Whitefish, we kept coming across places that were closed for the holiday and were afraid we’d get up to town and have no options for dinner.  To make sure we were fed, we settled on Applebee’s before leaving Kalispell.  This was a poor decision since we found plenty of interesting local options open once we reached Whitefish (the Applebee’s itself was fine).
Either way, we hiked from our parking spot in downtown Whitefish, which is a small ski village that reminded me of a smaller and less tacky Jackson in the downtown section, to the city beach at the southern outflow of Whitefish Lake.  The small public beach was buzzing with families, but seemed to be a mostly local crowd.  We setup chairs overlooking the water and hung out until show time around 10:30 (the sun stays up a very long time in summer this far north).  The firework show itself was nothing to write home about, but we thoroughly enjoyed it for a couple reasons:

1. Susan had her tripod and was able to take awesome pictures.
   
2. The backdrop for the fireworks show of lake surrounded by mountains was a perfect setting.
   
3. The barge shooting the fireworks caught fire near the end (no one injured) and provided some extra late show intrigue.
   

 

After the show we hiked along the river back to the car and watched as some of the locals kayaked back to their houses…very cool.  Then it was back to the hotel to bed.  Another big day loomed ahead on Friday.