The Peavy Family Blog: Glacsh Natty Park

It seems D-man has taken to his Granddad’s affinity for word play on this trip and we have seen a lot of “natty” (natural) lakes and were in two “natty” parks yesterday. We also so “Rez” (reservoir) lakes and saw a great deal of “natty” beauty during our time in “Glasch” (pronounced with a long “a.”

We left the condo around 12:30 on Sunday and took the scenic route around lake CDA through St. Marie’s. It made a drive a bit longer, but it was very pretty and extremely interesting to see the river we had just boated from a different viewpoint. We basically took the same way back to Glacier, but went around Kalispell which provided a different (and shorter) drive for me.

We arrived in the park around 7:30 and at the St. Mary’s lodge around 8:00. It was so peaceful and calm compared to when T-man and I toured the hotel before. The weather was also much more pleasant. We grabbed dinner at the lounge with a table looking over the water and then walked around the grounds. We played a few games of Quixx (I won) and a few hands of gin rummy (he won) on the balcony overlooking the lobby. We headed to bed to read our books and while neither of us slept well sharing a bed, it was a fun stay.

We checked out around 11:00 and went back to the entrance to check out the visitor center and Apgar Village where we grabbed food for the day. We threw rocks in St. Mary’s lake and headed off on the Going to the Sun Road. Even though I just drove this road, it was a completely different trip with different stops, views and hikes. We completed two different hikes and we had great parking karma. D-man made the comment about how we see mountains all the time, but these were not the same as the ones we see.

We got to our cabin in Many Glacier on the East side of the park at the Swiftcurrent Inn around 7:30. We checked in and went to eat at the lounge at the Many Glacier Lodge and then we hiked around the lake. It got pretty dark, but we made it (and it wasn’t busy at all - duh).

Or lodging was “rustic” and “historic” which D-man was a good sport about and he said it was part of the experience. Really, the only problem was the double bed we had to share. But, it was nostalgic for me to go to the shower rooms at night and have to head to the public bathrooms in the middle of the night. We played more games and then went to bed and slept horribly. It was wonderful.