Glacier National Park (part 2)(mostly pictures)

Location: St. Mary/East Glacier KOA (el.4,500 ft); St. Mary, Montana

(click pictures to enlarge)
(all pictures taken with Nokia Lumia 929 cell phone)

Yesterday I went to Two Medicine Lake to see a double waterfall that a fellow blogger had mentioned in his blog. The bloggers are Shawn and Kim and their blog is at www.ktmissouri.blogspot.com. We first ran into each other a few months ago when we were both camped at Choke Canyon State Park in Texas. They are good people and there are good pictures and good writing over there.


Two Medicine is a small town on the south-eastern side of Glacier. There isn't much there, mainly tourist shops. There is an entrance to the park that goes to Two Medicine Lake and Running Eagle Falls. Those were my first two stops.

My view as I opened my door yesterday morning. Nice.

I passed through the reservation again and of course, loose horses everywhere. This is along a U.S. Highway with the posted speed limit being 70 mph. The adjacent properties have fences but there are several places where it is down and needs repair. I do not plan to pass through this area at night. 

This gives a little idea of the roads leading to some of these places. Around each curve is another spectacular view.

That is the Lower Two Medicine Lake. It is a man-made lake. I planned to take a picture of the dam on my way out, but I forgot.

Entrance to Running Eagle Falls. Running Eagle was supposedly a real person from who lived 400 to 500 years ago. She was a great and respected warrior who, as a teenager, became the head of the family due to her fathers death. Her stories have been passed down over the ages. 

The trail is about 1/2 mile each way. Of course along the way are a couple nice resting benches.

First view of the falls through the trees.

A little closer with an overall view of the falls and background.

In this closer view you can see the double-decker falls. The little one on top and the wider one about half way down. Very pretty and peaceful.

After the falls, I stopped and had my lunch on the shores of Two Medicine Lake. It was a great view while enjoying my healthy lunch :).

After leaving Two Medicine, I went around the southern end of the park on U.S. Highway 2 to reach the Western Entrance of the Going To The Sun Road. The road would take me back to the campground. The Sun Road is 50 miles long and the first 15 miles or so from the western entrance is heavily wooded with few sights to be seen. The eastern end is similar but not as long. The middle part of the makes up for it and is just "wow around every curve". 

This is another example of the road. I had my side mirrors tucked in but there were fools with 2 foot wide trailer mirrors still sticking out. There were a few places where I came to a complete stop to allow the inside truck to creep past me. It was close enough I could have reached out and shook his hand. 

Not a lot of sight distance around the curves. You just hope some crazy isn't coming around. I'm not sure that short stone wall would have stopped Freedom from going over. There were sections of the wall that had been hit. 

And this is what the view is like around some of the curves. 

Some of these landscape shots may be of the same area in the last post. I didn't check, but they are still nice. 

Now that I see it, I think I posted a picture of this before. Oh well, just skip it if you've seen it before.

A distant waterfall. They are everywhere in the park.

Nice view of the glacier rounded valley

All of those "streaks" are created by water flows.

Nice view of the Rockies. I like this one.

A touch of reality just before leaving the Sun Road. A hot-mix paving operation. I had to wait about 15 minutes, but the weather was great and after a long drive it was strangely relaxing.

The trip today will be to Many Glacier and Sherburne Lake. They offer boat tours on that lake as well so I'll be checking it out. I'll decide which lake, St. Mary or Sherburne, to take the boat tour. Heck, I may do both. It will be another picnic lunch again today. I sure am glad I bought enough Bologna before leaving Great Falls. :)  

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.