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Sorry I can't get the photos properly organized. If you are seeing this apology for the first time, let me explain. Almost 7 years after I signed up and started using PhotoBucket, in July of 2017 they changed their terms of usage and broke all my embedded photo links overnight with no advance notice. I am trying to do the minimum required to get into compliance now and recover the pics. It is slow going since PhotoBucket has blocked my images.
August 30, 2012 - No bags out this morning, so that was a good start to the day. Breakfast was a buffet back in the Lakeside Chophouse at 7am. They had the most delicious maple syrup and a whole water pitcher of it! I also really liked the crispy cinnamon rolls. I know too many carbs! We had time to go back to the room to brush our teeth before the bus left at 8am.
We had to have our passports with us today for the border crossing into Montana. There was no direct road within the park between the 2 countries, so for some of our route today we crossed Blackfeet Indian Reservations.We crossed into the USA at the Chief Mountain border crossing. Oranges cannot cross the border here! Our passports got stamped and we had to fill out customs forms and an inspector came aboard to check each of us. It went quickly and we were on our way to
Glacier National Park.
We had a quick potty break at the St. Mary Visitor's Center and then took the bus as far into the park as allowed before loading into 3 Red Jammers. We rode the Going-to-the-Sun Road in the
Red Jammers as far as the Logan Pass Visitor's Center. There we unloaded to use restrooms, take a quick walk or see the Visitor's Center. We only had about 15 minutes, so it was a quick stop. On the way there, we had one other photo stop overlooking a lake. We stopped twice more without unloading for Jackson Glacier Overlook and right before the tunnel. We drove mostly alongside Goat Mountain. Our guide saw me constantly scanning the heights of it with binoculars and he asked what I was doing. I told him I was looking for goats, Goat Mountain. He told me to forget it that he had been doing this for 5-6 summers and never saw any goats! Returning to the Red Jammer from the Logan Pass Visitor's Center there were lots of people standing with binoculars and big-lensed cameras all pointing at the hillside over the parking lot. I stopped and asked what they were looking at of a couple of the groups with different guides. The guides were pointing out a small cluster of big horn sheep up there. It was like trying to find a pile of rocks in a big pile of rocks, but I found them with my binoculars and hustled down to our Red Jammer to tell everyone else. I don't think anyone would ever have seen them there if the first one with the biggest horns hadn't been casting a shadow! Wouldn't you know that our guide was loading us up while our other 2 guides were pointing out the big horn sheep. I stopped that! When our guide asked what we were looking at and we pointed out the big horn sheep, he replied Oh those are always up there in that same spot, I think they must have them staked out up there. Really? They were really far away and hard to see, but still it was exciting for some of us!
We didn't really see anything fresh on the way back from Logan Pass. We reloaded the bus and drove back to St. Mary for our lunch stop. Amy was unclear here on what was happening. She told us to go inside to the Snowgoose Grill restaurant and sit at any table with a glass of water and be back on the bus at a set time. The restaurant asked us to come back in a few minutes as they weren't ready, so most of us went to the restrooms or the gift shop. In the ladies room, people were asking each other if they misunderstood and lunch was included today. In fact, it was not included and we could have skipped it, but Amy did not explain in advance or at the stop what was happening. It turned out to be another unfortunate stop. We were the first table seated and placed our drink order immediately on sitting. 2 Moose Drool beers and 2 Red Jammer Root Beers. However, the waiter did not return to take our food order until he had been to every other table! We were last to order and it was 45 minutes from the time we got our drinks until we got our food. We had 15 minutes left and no food. We flagged down our waiter and he told us there had been a mixup and our food had been delivered to another table and was being recooked! He never apologized and acted quite put out with us and stated his facts rather rudely. Thankfully, Clay and I had gone to visit the gift shop after placing our food order while waiting patiently. We tried to quickly eat some of our lunch and pay our bill, but we were the last ones out of the restaurant. It wasn't very good food either. If we had known in advance, we might have planned to eat protein bars or something else to just hold us until we had a chance to eat somewhere of our choosing and without a short time limit attached. Amy must have taken some heat from others on this point, because it didn't happen again. After that she would give us up to 24-hours notice about "picnic opportunities" for lunch.
After lunch, we drove to
Many Glacier Hotel. I am still not sure why, it was about an hour roundtrip drive and we only unloaded the bus there for about 20 minutes. We passed and briefly glimpsed a grizzly bear in the distance from the bus on the way out. We also saw a black bear briefly at a distance from the bus. Neither close enough or clear enough view or long enough stop for photos. Sorry! We passed a waterfall right before Many Glacier Hotel. When we unloaded the bus, I asked Amy if we had time to walk there and back and she said no, go in the hotel, use the restrooms and see the view over the lake and go downstairs and get some huckleberry ice cream. So, that is what we did. The huckleberry ice cream was hard to find even with directions and signage. It was from a self-service soft-serve machine. It was good. We all shared 2 of them and that was plenty.
Nothing remarkable to report on the rest of the drive. We crossed back into Canada with the same routine as this morning on the way out.
We got back to Waterton and the Bayshore Inn around 3-4pm. Judy was waiting to see her sister and her friend and planned to spend the evening alone with them. The rest of us went for a walk up the hill with the goal of seeing the Newt Underpass. As we were driving out of Waterton this morning, Amy pointed out a couple of rumbles as we drove over them and explained that there was a sign with a newt on it coming into Waterton. It seems these newts only live here and they go down to the lake to breed and then live up on the mountain the rest of the time. After the road was built, there were a lot of squished newts. So, they built a diverter up the mountain, above the road to steer the newts into a couple of tunnels under the road. Same thing below the road. Success for the newts! As we walked in that direction, Clay spotted some big horn sheep right here near home. There was a group of females and youngsters right on the edge of the cliff over the road into Waterton. We learned today that only the males have the big curled horns. The female big horn sheep, just have long narrow horns that sweep back, but they don't get big and curl around. Mom and I stood there for a while as Clay walked on to the Newt Underpass and back. We pointed out the sheep to lots of passersby and a lot of folks got photos they would otherwise have missed! On the way back to the hotel, we found a public wildflower garden used to generate seeds.
We came back to the hotel and saw another group of mule deer right at the hotel and met Judy's sister and her friend. As it was getting dark, we headed over to
Wieners for dinner. It was good. We all had the Nathan's dog. Amy had advised us to get the sweet potato fries with Parmesan rosemary dip and we got an order to share. Another passenger had recommended the crushed potato chips as a topping. So, I had special sauce (spicy ketchup) and mustard with crushed salt and vinegar potato chips. It was all very good. We all really liked the dip with the fries and usually none of us are fans of sweet potato fries. After we walked down the main street to get an ice cream cone for Clay. Mom and I went inside a shop to try on a shirt and missed the herd of mule deer crossing the road. Clay left us there and we found him on the swing in front of the hotel. Tomorrow is a bags out morning, so we all went to bed pretty early.
One note about Bayshore Inn. There are no refrigerators in the rooms. There is an ice bucket and the machine is in the parking lot behind the office. You have to take your room key with you to get ice!
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