Glacier National Park

Does it seem like an instagram pic? It sure is. Most of the ones from this post will take you on a ride over the red rock mountains, lush green valleys and glaciers that embedd solely into your instagrammable heart.

Often talking feet lead to memorable trips in your lifetime. Summer 2022 brought us one of them. Glacier National Park, Montana is truly one of the Crown Jewels of the North America continent. Did you say what about the crown itself? Ofcourse! I will come to the crown too in the next post of the blog that will take you to paradise. For now, I am taking a breath in this set of mesmerizing pictures that speak a thousand words.

Glacier National Park besides being the jewel is also world’s first transboundary International Dark Sky Park, first International Peace Park, with its combination of natural wonders, biosphere reserve, cultural history and the shared border with Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada.

We flew from Dallas to Calgary in Canada 🇨🇦. Drove from Calgary to GNP, Montana. Entered the park via Many Glacier Entrance that's the east entrance of the park. And then my friends it is a story…

Babb, Glacier National Park

I am really particular about the stay while on vacation. Never had I thought of a stay like this that would remind me of olden yet posh lodging. We checked into the 1914 Swiss Chalet - Many Glacier hotel. I was awed by the landscape and the ambience of the hotel. Brought me to centuries old heritage which was so preciously maintained. To give a sense of what I am talking about, there were two separate taps for hot and cold water in the bathroom. I will leave it to you to figure out the mix and bathing part 😀

The best view at the Swiss Chalet was the view of the mountain peaks during the sun rise. Sun kissed peaks at 5:45 am dawn.

They say a family that trails together stays together. That said, we could not miss any opportunity to hike. The next day we headed towards our first 4 mile hike of the Red Rock Falls. Spellbound with the aura, you are here on the track that surrounds you with lush green valley full beargrass blooms. The name Red Rock comes from the rock color of the mountains that do not make you forget the red carpet welcome back in countries.

The beargrass valley on route to the falls.

All that we could ask for, lovely weather, rainbow surrounding the red rock mountains and the waterfalls.

Weather is as pure as holy water giving you enough of that fresh air for mood restoration. This draws my attention to our fours' blessing or jinx or whatever you may want to call it, to meet rain shower on a trail as pretty as this showers of blessings. And we did this time too as we did last year at yellow stone. But guess what? We had pocket umbrellas and then starts the umbrella series of the trail 😅. Breathtaking indeed! The good thing was we were equipped with umbrellas, remember our talking feet helped…..😀

An interesting encounter was that with a Moose. I have not dred to the extend ever as I did when our eyes met. A bathing moose was right behind our temporary studio set up on the trail. The whole incident will never be forgetten especially how we purposely stuck to this couple hiking along the way just so we had some back. We were so zapped! This couple had the boy scared to death, he kept asking his girlfriend ‘where do we go babe?’ What do we do babe?’ Had enough of the laugh beside sustaining the fear of the moose running into you. The hike literally revived all my romantic Bollywood slow numbers when it started to rain on the trail.

St. Mary's

An experience that connects nature to human. I am a quite a proponent of crushing thru the mountaineering rivers. So we had to boat cruise at St Mary Rising Sun followed by beautiful scenic drive going to the sun road GTTSR. That added the wild goose island & the St Mary Falls steep hike of 3-4 miles to our agenda . Throughout the entire time in GNP, beargrass growing in different shapes and height enchanted our pathway all the way along.

The Cedar Trail, Sacred Dancing Waterfalls, MacDonald’s falls seemed conjuring upon us for staying longer. I kept humming ‘Somehwere over the mountain’…. my favorites. Next day we were shaking it off a at the West Glacier area. Stayed at Apgar Village lodge with a beautiful lake Mc Donald score from our window. Had two days of morning coffee with this pretty lady Lake McDonald. Tried all angles of photography there…so much fun. Suhana enjoyed the dandelion air fall there. Ate at West Glacier with a beautiful yellow umbrella backdrop view. A lovely Huckleberry Hut show was enticing too. Then came a day for meeting with wildlife. On the way to John Lake loop and Oxbow trail also known as deer territory we met eye to eye with this beautiful elk on the way who seemed to have said hello to us. We hid ourselves behind the tree there. Enchanted fairy tale indeed.

Apgar Village & Lake McDonald

The Lake McDonald surprised me with the mirror like reflection of the mountains and crystal clear water surfing the red rocks that appeared no less than some pearls in the shells

John Lake Loop Trail & Avalanche Trail Head

The fairly tale walk thru in the huge pine trees, robust tree trunks will give a sense of some Disney reel with human playing the roles of finding the Alice this time. What more could ground those feelings than a deer stopping your way, de-routing you of your track.

The West Glacier Cafe

Glacier breeze drink with huckleberry rum and orange juice at Apgar will remain unforgettable. A grizzly cocktail 🍹 indeed! Ended this short excursion with horse riding. Pilgrim, Coconut & the Otter were very friendly. Enjoyed every bit of their company. Guess what? Horses are never approached by a Grizzly coz they smell too bad. Lol… Grizzlies have attitude too huh

While you enjoy these pics ending in the right umbrella series, Canadian Rockies are calling me to pen the next part of the trip. Stay tuned!

Cheers!