| Moose Creek
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Another excellent breakfast served at Moose Creek was in store for us:
a farmer's scramble with potatoes.
The weather began to clear today as we prepared our pack lunches.
| Time | Event | Range Remaining |
|---|
| 9:43 am | Departed Moose Creek | 288 |
We made a point of visiting the
Apgar Visitors Center
one last time so that our children could
earn their Junior Ranger badges.
Us grown-ups even
had a few questions for the Ranger
about the blue-colored stones we found in the Park.
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| Johns Lake
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After my daughter's meltdown on the longer hike yesterday,
as well as the humans' being tired of the winding roads of the Going-to-the-Sun road,
I made a point of planning today's itinerary in the nearby Lake McDonald area and choosing a very easy hike.
We started at the Johns Lake Trailhead
and with surprising ease located parking very close to the trailhead this time,
and made our way counterclockwise on a loop trail.
After a pleasant visit to Johns Lake and seeing a few friendly deer along the way,
we made our way to the bridge over
McDonald Creek for a view of Sacred Dancing Cascade.
The ferns interspersed with the trees made for a calm and relaxing tour.
Here and there the trail would take us close to the creek, eventually
settling on the refreshing sights and sounds of McDonald Falls.
Finally one more walk through the forest led us back to our parking location.
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| Lake McDonald
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With the hike of the day out of our way,
we took a stop at the facilities associated with Lake McDonald Lodge, starting with the
Camp Store.
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My wife and daughter took to the store right away,
while my son and I sought out the bathroom break.
Before long our family regrouped at the store to do our final souvenir shopping at Glacier National Park.
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Also at this location is the electric vehicle charging stalls, including a Tesla charger.
Here was a white Model 3 charging without issue. Of course, I had plenty of charge, so
I had no need to plug in.
Originally I wanted to book nights here at the Lake McDonald Lodge area,
but it seemed impossible to book anything of useful to us.
Maybe the pandemic had an effect?
Maybe we have to book more than a year in advance?
The answer is not clear.
But this was a chance to survey the grounds and see what the stay would have been like.
While my wife and daughter used the restroom, I took a quick walk to the
shore to discover dozens of cabins with lake views.
That would be really great to stay at a place like this,
with the exception that under current circumstances dine-in eating at the Park is
virtually non-existent.
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Then we found the Lodge itself, which was completely closed,
so we could not go inside.
Someday we would like to stay here if possible,
schedule- and pandemic-permitting.
On the other hand that breakfast at Moose Creek has never failed us.
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| Fish Creek
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After taking our fill of the Lodge area here, we
left to take a quick preview
drive through Apgar Village on our way to Fish Creek.
We could see the horse stables, which is probably what the
AAA article from 2019 referred to.
My daughter, as much as she might like horses from a distance or in pictures,
is too scared of them to actually ride one.
We went to Fish Creek to have a pleasant picnic lunch in view of Lake McDonald.
Yet again we leveraged the no-dine-in situation to
bring lunch with us to beautiful places to maximize enjoyment of nature.
Following lunch we took a slow walk along these
river-rock-covered shores of Lake McDonald.
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| Goodbye to Glacier National Park
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After the visiting Fish Creek,
we returned to Apgar village to
see what stores had
interesting things to try or see.
We had some ice cream from Eddie's ice cream.
We visited the Montana House and
bought slews of great gifts at
great prices.
On our way out of the Park we stopped by
the "Gateway",
where we stopped at a few stores.
My visit was quick,
so while my wife and daughter
continued shopping I took the opportunity to
go take pictures at the Glacier National Park sign (top picture).
In the morning the vicinity of the sign was jammed with loads of other visitors taking selfies,
but only now I had my chance.
I wasn't alone for long.
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| Moose Creek
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| Time | Event | Range Remaining |
|---|
| 3:36 pm | Arrive Moose Creek | 239 |
Range/Distance ratio: 1.289
Conditions: Sightseeing, shopping, lunch, and a hike
Upon our return to Moose Creek,
we realized this was our final night near Glacier National Park.
We decided to have a comfortable dinner at
the Glacier Highland restaurant,
including one last chance to have some Huckleberry pie,
not far from the Park entrance.
As mentioned earlier, I checked the
National Bison Range web site again to see if it would reopen
the next day, but no it was not.
Knowing we did not have to rush out tomorrow morning,
we took the time tonight for the family to relax
at the conclusion of our
awesome visit to Glacier National Park.
We definitely will find a way someday to come back again
to slow down in the beauty here to enjoy it for a longer time.
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Dean E. Dauger holds a Ph. D. in physics from UCLA, where his group
created the first Mac cluster in 1998. Dr. Dauger is the award-winning
author in multiple American Institute of Physics' Software Contests and
co-authored the original, award-winning Kai's Power Tools
image-processing package for Adobe Photoshop.
After founding his company,
Dauger Research, Inc., its debut product,
Pooch, derived from Dr. Dauger's experience using clusters for his
physics research, was soon awarded as "most innovative" by IEEE Cluster
and continues to revolutionize parallel computing and clusters worldwide
with its patented technology.
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