We entered at St. Mary's Visitor Center to stop and look around, then backtracked the few miles outside the park to our nearby KOA. This was the one place where our luck ran out with reservations, the park campgrounds booking up immediately after being released. Being a KOA, sites were packed together like sardines, but at least each site had tons of plants so felt reasonably private. We set camp, made some pasta for dinner, then visited the camp store for more huckleberry ice cream before returning to the park.
Heading north into the Many Glacier entrance, we looked for animals (bald eagle, lots of ducks and other birds) and enjoyed the scenery from the car before stopping at the Many Glacier Lodge for a short hike near Swiftcurrent Lake.
Walking around the lodge, we saw a deer and a bunny really close by ("not scared of us", noted Zadie). At the trailhead, there were signs warning of unusually high grizzly bear activity that week - yikes. Great reason to make this a short hike!
The girls made noise along the trail by saying "zhoup" each time they saw the bending, twisting trees common in Glacier. Scare away those bears, ladies!
Ruth took some great pictures here of the mountains reflecting over the lake. What a beautiful place!
