Two Lanes, Top Down, Green Dots: Day 6 Lake McDonald, MT to Many Glacier, MT

Day 6

Miles 163 (1589)
Two Lanes 163 (1338)
Top down 163 (1464)

Where to begin. What a day.
Five words described this day: weather, mountains, animals, hike, hotel.

The weather was perfect. It was a cloudless day without any breeze with temperatures that climbed into the 70’s.

The mountains are magnificent, rugged and jagged and steep.

And Linda got to see her wish list of animals in the wild:

o Mountain goats in several areas, all but one on rocky ledges.
o Three moose cows and one calf across Bullhead Lake at a distance of ¼ mile
o On grizzly on an inclined plan across a creek from us and about two hundred feet above us at a distance of about a half mile
o One ram near the hotel.

We took a leisurely 8 mile roundtrip hike up Swiftcurrent Creek into a valley which was rally a glacial cirque. There, just above Bullhead Lake, we rand into an off duty ranger and his family. It was the most beautiful day of he year so far and he was taking advantage of it. He works in Helena in the inter and then comes here as a park ranger….every year for 35 years. He was describing the trail ahead to a group of hikers as if you might describe how your living room furniture is laid out, down to the details of the fabric

The hotel was built in 1915 and opened on the July. I think of my mother when I am here, as this hotel and Chateau Lake Louise were her two favorites. Our room was on he third floor facing the lake with a balcony, from which I write this at 0645 looking at the morning light awakened the mountains around us.

Enough words. I will let the photos posted in the next posts tell the story.

Lake McDonald, Like a Mirror