Articles & Stories

It’s no doubt that the Howe Ridge Fire burning on the northwest side of Lake McDonald, and the accompanying closure of the Lake McDonald Lodge and Going-to-the-Sun Road, has put a real damper on the usual Glacier NP activities this summer.  But, we just spent a fantastic weekend in StepsAway’s big cabin (StepsAway 244) and proved that there is so much to do in and around the Park, the fire is no reason to stay away.

We named the cabins “Steps Away” (StepsAway 254 and StepsAway 244) because they are literally (used correctly!) only steps away from both the entrance to Glacier National Park and the businesses of West Glacier Village.  Saturday night we decided to reconfirm our naming convention with a walking tour of food and beverage options.

A five minute walk took us across US Highway 2 to the Belton Chalet.  The Belton Chalet is famous for the historic building AND their restaurant.  Knowing that we were going to make several stops, we enjoyed an appetizer, a round of delicious drinks and split a dessert!  Hard to say no to creme brûlée – especially when our old friend Alex (ok, we met him once back on Memorial Day Weekend – see “political activist” in Friday Night Bear and Beers post) picked up the dessert tab!

Across a side street also along Hwy 2, we popped into the Glacier Highland Resort Restaurant.  This is much more of a family-style eatery with good grub – specializing in pies!  We each had a satisfying small meal and a draught (well, I had a draught) while admiring the view – the Belton (West Glacier) Amtrak Station is right across the highway.

Well, it’s not really a Saturday night without a stop at Freda’s!  On the way over though, we realized that we had never gone in the West Glacier Camp Store.  It has a whole different selection of Glacier-oriented gifts oriented more toward, well camping.

Freda’s is the historic West Glacier Village bar.  We were lucky – our favorite bartender Al had the evening shift!  A couple rounds, new friends – including a honeymooning couple from North Dakota, a Romanian waitress from the previous stop, and a Local (!) – and fun conversations made for a memorable Saturday night.  Another 100 yards affirmed it – yep, StepsAway!

We approached Sunday a bit differently.  We decided to take the dogs with us for a drive up to the Canadian border.  This is one of our favorite spots.  It’s quiet.  It’s remote. And, although you cut through the Park on Camas Road, it’s actually not in GNP, but you can see it across the river.

Here we seldom see anyone.  The border crossing is closed but there’s a boat launch area for floating the North Fork of the Flathead River.  The temptation to step across the border illegally(!) is, according to Robert

Palmer, simply irresistible!  At this time of the year, the dogs enjoy wading into the cool, fresh Canadian runoff.  For some reason, sitting on incredibly hard, uncomfortable boulders gazing into the clear water while searching through the uncountable rocks for no real reason at all is something we always look forward to.

Being that the cabin is a short, very rural drive away, we allowed ourselves to be drawn into another of our favorite spots on the return trip – Polebridge.  This “town” consists of a few cabins, the world famous Mercantile and the Northern Lights Saloon.  We had missed the Labor Day festivities the night before, but honestly an uncrowded Northern Lights Saloon picnic table on a 70 degree, Dickey Betts’ Blue Sky Sunday afternoon with Huckleberry Margaritas served in Mason jars is like making time stand still.  It’s always hard for me to leave that place…

I think this time I was promised that we could stop at Home Ranch Bottoms for some food.  This is an oddly relaxing establishment along the North Fork Road.  Part bar, part restaurant, part gift store, part campground… it sits on a beautiful flat section of land (the Bottoms no doubt) surrounded by forests.  Here we can let the dogs introduce themselves to the other dogs – there are always other dogs – grab some decent BBQ wings and ribs, and meet more happy people who love this part of Montana as much as we do.

All this adventure and we were back at StepsAway in time to give the pups their late dinner and sneak in a nap before bedtime!

Since late July, as fires were breaking out across California, Oregon and Washington, we’ve had our fingers crossed hoping that our beloved Glacier National Park and surrounding communities would be spared.  But, we knew that a fire somewhere close by was inevitable….From InciWeb:

On the evening of August 11th, lightning ignited a fire on Howe Ridge, northwest of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park. On Sunday, August 12th, windy and dry conditions fueled the fire to rapidly expand. Evacuation orders were issued for the North Lake McDonald road, Lake McDonald Lodge area, Sprague Creek and Avalanche Campgrounds and the Going-to-the-Sun road from the foot of Lake McDonald to Logan Pass (32 miles).

Although Lake McDonald Lodge is 11 miles up the Going-to-the-Sun Road from the StepsAway cabins (StepsAway 254 and StepsAway 244), the way this fire blew up on Sunday night has made a lot of people in the area very nervous.  Our hearts go out to those that lost properties along North Lake McDonald Road. For those that understand what a special place GNP is, that must be a gut wrenching loss.

Thankfully, the cabins are safe (knock on wood!).  Our only monetary loss, was a cancellation due to concerns about the air quality. No big deal compared with what is happening to so many others!!!

These wildfires are very much natural events and are necessary to thin and rejuvenate the forests.  However, that logic is insufficient to balance the disappointment and sadness that Glacierites (me included) experience when this beautiful place burns.

The good news, if there is some – it appears that the efforts to minimize the losses are working.  Although 3500 acres IS big, this fire could have been catastrophic if it weren’t for the fire crews fighting to contain it.  To those firefighters, we say, “THANK YOU!”

Though the property losses are tragic, and the Lodge, camping area and road closures are inconvenient, one should realize that Glacier National Park is a big place! People are still filling the Logan Pass parking lot via the east entrance at St. Mary and the Lodges at Many Glacier and East Glacier are very much worth visiting.  And, in time, the rains will come, the air will clear and the majestic Crown of the Continent will endure.

The day we first stayed in StepsAway 254 cabin (December 18, 2017), I felt compelled to take a photograph from the dining room table through the front picture window – probably because I wanted to be able to share that it snowed enough to cover the ground.  Because I took that first picture shown here (and a touch of OCD),  I try to take one each time I’m sitting there.  I won’t bore you with each and every picture, but a sampling through the winter and spring produces an interesting view of the snow accumulation this past winter and its rapid regression to this recent Memorial Day Weekend.

On New Year’s Eve, it’s pretty clear that this winter was going to be “special”.  That’s a good bit of accumulation in 2 weeks.  We were starting to get concerned with what we had gotten ourselves into.

Getting to the cabin in mid-February was a significant challenge. Upon arrival I was facing an overwhelmingly huge snowplow berm armed with only a single snow shovel.

This photo from February 17 shows just how close the snow on the ground is to meeting the snow on the carport roof.Just 3 days later, a few days of sunshine allowed the snow to settle into a seriously wet, dense mass (I apologize for going engineer there). It was during this week that the temperature dropped to -17 F – not wind chill, actual temperature.  Polebridge, about 20 miles north, recorded -40F!  But winter was not over yet.

On March 10, the snow was a good 2 feet deeper.  It wasn’t possible to take a photo through the same window, as the snow from the roof overhung the top half and the pile on the ground obscured the bottom half!  The photo to the left was taken from the front porch.  Notice the stop sign for reference. It had to be uncovered to be visible.  At this point, even the locals were becoming less amused at the snow levels. We missed a couple of weeks, but when we returned, fortunately, spring was starting to emerge.

This photo, taken April 20, was the first time that we had seen part of the yard – actual grass – peeking through.  It was several weeks yet before all of the snow disappeared.  But, in what felt like no time at all, spring blasted into a summer weekend with temperatures into the high 70’s.

Green grass and a birch tree full of leaves greeted us on Friday, May 25.  A perfect start to a perfect weekend (with a bear).  I hope you enjoyed the seasons through a cabin window!

How much fun can we squeeze into Friday night while not even leaving West Glacier?  Of course, there was the mundane unloading the truck, doing a walk around, and making sure the cabin is still in great shape.  We also had to admire how sparkling clean the cleaning crew from our property management company had left the cabin.  Fantastic job!

Our primary activity is walking…  “Let’s take a walk” is uttered by one of us heading off the temptation to simply plop down in an Adirondack chair and just stare at the scenery.  Friday night we were excited to witness what the advancement of spring had brought to our favorite walks.  We first headed down to Going to the Sun Road which runs right through the middle of West Glacier Village,  a short block from StepsAway 254.  We crossed and headed toward the Old West Glacier Bridge.

In the winter, this bridge was barely visible under several feet of snow.  We had to climb over huge piles of snow just to get onto it.  Once on the main part of the bridge, we had to stay away from the edges because the snow was higher than the railings.  But the views up and down the Middle Fork of the Flathead River are captivating.

On this night, there was no snow to impede the short walk to the bridge.  The sun was still probably an hour or more from setting, but the low sunlight made the river sparkle.

We were excited to be able to take the boundary trail – once across the bridge we are in Glacier National Park proper – back west to the GNP Headquarters.  This trail follows the river back to the new West Glacier Bridge.

I know – “Get to the bear part!”, but first just a little history… The view of the Old Bridge from GNP provided a different perspective.  The concrete arch was original, but a flood in 1964 destroyed most of the bridges along the river, while this concrete arch survived.  It was quickly built up with timbers and used as an emergency entrance to the park until the new bridge in West Glacier was completed.

The very comfortable gravel path made for a leisurely stroll back toward Going to the Sun Road.  As the trail turned away from the river and climbed a few feet to the park headquarters I heard, “Is that a real bear?!”  Trust me, that will get your attention.  I was expecting to see a bear off in the distance, but no.  Less than 40 feet from us, staring at us like we were a bowl of ice cream, was a large cinnamon colored black bear.  We were crossing right in front of him.  (Could have been a her, but I didn’t stop long enough for a close examination!) We hurried up the road a good hundred feet before we were calm enough to get the picture.  The bear then crossed the trail and continued toward the new bridge, of course.

The bear’s close proximity forced us to detour a bit and, yes, we walked down the middle of Going to the Sun Road as we approached the new bridge.  At this point, every log along the dimly lit road appeared to be another bear!

Back in West Glacier Village, we headed into Freda’s Bar to have a beer and share our latest wildlife adventure.  The bar itself is the epitome of a western mountain gathering place.  We met a musician, a logger, several park workers, golfers here for a tournament – yes, West Glacier has a golf course – a political operative (another great story) and various other combinations of locals, summer workers, and tourists.  Al, our newest favorite bartender, has one of the best, eclectic 70’s rock, country, folk, roots music playlist that I’ve experienced, maybe ever.

After “enough”, we slipped around the back and were at the StepsAway cabin in about a minute.  Quite the adventure for having been in town for only about 5 hours!

It’s not just a Clark W. Griswold quote, it’s actually true in our case.  We decided to spend Memorial Day Weekend at the StepsAway cabin, StepsAway 254, in West Glacier, Montana.  There are a number of routes we could take to get there – all of them loaded with beautiful scenery – but lately we succumbed to taking the fastest route.  From Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, that means taking I-90 east.  The first picture is Lake Coeur d’Alene taken from the high bridge leaving town at 65 mph.

An hour and a half, Fourth of July Pass, and Lookout Pass later, we leave the interstate behind at St. Regis, Montana.  The sign indicating that this is the route to Glacier National Park, although technically accurate, has to be one of the most misleading signs in the state.  The route from there to GNP covers no fewer than 7 more highways with even more “turns” and covers another 100+ miles.

It’s this part of the route, however, where the fun begins.  I love driving the smooth two lane highways in Montana.  The scenery is stunning around every curve – mountain vistas, green valleys, huge meadows full of cattle and sage brush.  And nearly every highway follows a river.  Descending down from Lookout Pass, the interstate follows the gradually increasing stream of the St. Regis River.  But once off the interstate, the impressive Clark Fork River takes over.  On this trip it was particularly impressive – stretching wide enough that it has caused some serious flooding in some areas.  One of our favorite pit stops – maybe it’s the dogs’ favorite pit stop – is on the bank of the Clark Fork, just outside Paradise.

Yep, it’s true… this route to Glacier National Park goes right through the middle of Paradise, MT. This small town deserves a lot of credit for the audacity to call itself Paradise compared to all of the incredible spots within the state.  To be fair, we haven’t actually stopped and spent anytime there, so it very well could be…

One of the most stunning views is the first glimpse of Flathead Lake.  Coming over that last rise before connecting with US Highway 93 never fails to impress.  Although there’s another good hour yet to travel, driving through Lakeside and Somers, and over toward BigFork, makes the drive go by quickly.

Finally, we’re always excited to make the turn onto Going To The Sun Road and entering the village of West Glacier.  We’re only a block away from the cabin at this point and excited to start another little adventure within and around the Park.  At this time of the year, we also know we have serious daylight until well after 9pm, and the days just keep getting longer!

We were able to put out the patio furniture and the grill at StepsAway 254 this past Sunday (May 20).  It felt like an early summer day – green grass, warm sun and West Glacier Village was humming with preparations for the first big weekend of the season. A couple of Golden Grizzly Ales went down mighty easy sitting in the front yard Adirondack chairs!

We were also able to head into Apgar Village for a quick view of Lake McDonald – it never disappoints!  The contrast between this weekend and back in February is amazing.