This was the beginning of a 11 day vacation at Glacier National Park. Before this trip, we had spent most of our hiking trips in the southwest - such as Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon etc. Colorado’s Rocky National Park was probably the one most similar to Glacier that we had visited, so we were really pleasantly surprised by this gem hidden in the northern Rockies.

We arrived at Kalispell, Montana late in the afternoon. It was a warm afternoon and the sky was a bit hazy. Shortly after we finalized our travel plan to Glacier, we learnt of huge fire activities in the region, but we didn’t know what the true impact would be to our trip. We surveyed the horizon around us once the plane landed and the condition did not look too bad. We kept our fingers crossed, but we found out shortly that it didn’t help.

Glacier National Park Map

The plan was to stay at various parts of the park, starting from East Glacier. That’s about a couple of hours drive from Kalispell. On the way to East Glacier, we came across a lot of fire fighting activities along Hwy 2. The Hungry Horse Fire had jumped the reservoir due to high winds, so firefighting effort was in full force. On Hwy 2, we stopped to witness a helicopter hovering low to refill its 300 gallon bucket at Flathead River. There was a lot of smoke coming from a mountain slope about a few miles out and the trees were like sticks of torches.

The smoke got worse as we drove closer to East Glacier. The sky was quite dim and hazy. It was getting close to sunset. There were wood ashes in the air, like gray snow, as we arrived at the Glacier Park Lodge.

Glacier Park Lodge is a

grand old hotel with a huge lobby featuring wood columns that look like tree trunks. The building is about 3 to 4 stories high. The lobby area opens up to the roof, with balconies running on all four sides of the lobby area. The balcony walkway is supported by huge wood log. The architect wanted to give it a wooded area feel. The lobby layout and furnishing are rustic and simple. In the evenings, there are performances and the guests can just sit around  the fire place. The hotel has their own restaurant. It does not look very fancy, but the pricing is on the high side.

Since it’s an old hotel, the room floors are squeaky and noisy. Just pray that your upstairs neighbor don’t walk around the room the whole night. The shower stall is very small and narrow, they’re definitely not designed for the super-size generation.

We went to Serrano, a Tex Mex restaurant for dinner. It’s claimed to be the best restaurant in town, although the town of East Glacier is quite tiny. The food was average and the service was a bit slow. The waiter kept on forgetting our stuff. Anyway, it was a long day and we just wanted to retire soon.