Montana, Glacier NP, June 2014: Day 2

Today's mission was to explore. Neither Linda or I have ever been to Glacier NP, so we first needed to get to the visitor center to explore our options. But first, it was a mission for breakfast.

Seven miles east from Meadow Lake is a town called Hungry Horse. There's a restaurant there called The Huckleberry Patch (www.huckleberrypatch.com) That just says "breakfast", doesn't it?? We each had a combo plate with huckleberry pancakes, bacon, eggs, and huckleberry-flavored coffee. Good eats and well worth the stop.

After grabbing some coffee for the road, it was now finally time to head to the park. Fifteen miles later, we pulled into the West Glacier entrance gate. What was special this trip is that Linda qualified for the NPS's "Senior Pass" costing $10 and will now give free admission to any national park forever.

Here we are at the main gate:

We drove to the Visitor Center to pick up a hiking map and get the latest information. Our good friend, Bruce Erickson, suggested as a "must do" to drive the "Going to the Sun" road to the top of Logan Pass and down the east side to St Mary. Unfortunately, the ranger told us that the road was not open all the way through until approximately June 20th due to excessive snow. Bummer. So, our main option for the day was to backtrack to the main highway (Hwy 2), head south and east to go around the southern edge of the park over the Continental Divide, through the towns of East Glacier, Browning, St Mary, and Babb to get to the east park entry at "Many Glacier". The drive took about two-and-a-half hours and was very scenic with mostly 70+mph roads with some sections of windy roads.

Visitor Center

As we were driving, we came across some range horses:

Entering Glacier NP Many Glacier entrance

Bighorn Sheep on hillside

As soon as we entered the park, we came across several cars pulled over looking up the hill to our right. There about 50 yards on the slope was a pack of about 10-15 bighorn sheep. They were walking in parallel to the road and moving briskly. First impression was that they were full-grown animals with several males in the lead protecting at least one young calf.

Bighorn sheep on hillside

We then left that area and about 200 yards down the road, noticed on the left a waterfall with rapid white water. It was very scenic, so we decided to take some pictures. As we were heading back up the hill to the car, the same pack of sheep which we earlier saw on the hillside now were about 50 feet east of us on the trail. Linda stayed on the uphill side and I moved to the opposite side of the trail on the edge of the cliff. I just stayed still, shot videos, and made no sudden moves.

Bighorn sheep

The sheep were hearing a barking dog in the car on the road as well as checking out us humans.

Bighorn Sheep encounter #1 (YouTube): http://youtu.be/bNAxKqCEy2s

Bighorn Sheep encounter #2 (YouTube): http://youtu.be/4XUcJEE7xr0

Bighorn Sheep encounter #3 (YouTube): http://youtu.be/kC_EaiJ_bF4