Arriving at our cabin outside the east entrance to Yellowstone

We arrived at the cabin we rented shortly after 4 pm on Labor Day.

Our home for a week

Sunset view from cabin
Henry Lake can be seen in the distance

The cabin is located in Island Park, ID, about a 15 minute drive to the western entrance to Yellowstone National Park. We found it by using the Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO) web site. Our cabin, plus its "sister" cabin, are run by Two Top Trading, a family run operation. We couldn't have been more pleased. The place was spotless, spacious, and nicely decorated. The owners seemed to have thought of everything. Betty and I enjoyed coming "home" after our very long days exploring Yellowstone. It was also great to have use of a washer and dryer after being on the road for 2 weeks. You can check out the rental listing in VRBO here.

Below are a series of interior photos of the cabin. I should have taken these on our arrival, but failed to do so. Instead these were taken as we were heading out the door. You will see two of the beds unmade since the owners ask you to do this so they know which linens have to be cleaned. Also the laundry basket is there with the other dirty linens from our stay. Otherwise it looks pretty much like we found it.

Living room with stairs to loft
TV had Dish satellite

Kitchen has all full size appliances
including a dish washer 

Lots of hooks by the front door
Towels on shelf for the jacuzzi on the front deck

Betty's bedroom with her own thermostat

The bathroom also had its own thermostat

Looking down at living room from loft
That is a bear resting on a log above the TV

Loft has 2 queen beds and a nice sitting area
The full size washer & dryer are behind the doors

View of the two queen beds from the loft's sitting area

On our way from Glacier to Yellowstone

Our drive down from Glacier to Yellowstone went smoothly. We broke it up into two days, staying one night in Helena, MT. The cost of a room with two beds was the same as a suite, so we opted for a suite. It felt very luxurious to have a small sitting area with a couch, chair, and coffee table.

Suite at Comfort Inn Suites Airport in Helena 

We arrived in Helena in time to do a little sight seeing before dinner. Because it was drizzling, we decided against the open air historic train ride and instead visited the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts. The historic 26 acre site located on the outskirts of town was once the Western Clay Manufacturing Company. They have a couple galleries open, and visitors also can walk the grounds and see some very old beehive kilns used when it was a brickyard.

The Pottery Museum

Betty at one of many outdoor art pieces

A covered picnic table
Pieces of pottery are found
throughout the grounds

Entrance to beehive kiln being restored

Exterior of beehive kiln

Interior of beehive kiln

Glacier National Park on the Canadian side

On Saturday we drove north to see the Canadian version of Glacier National Park. Shortly before crossing the border one gets a nice view of Chief Mountain which is on the very eastern edge of the park.

Chief Mountain

The border crossing went smoothly, and they let us go across with the fruit we had packed for snacks.

Betty at the Canada border

One of the attractions we wanted to see was the Prince of Wales chalet. We learned about this serendipitously over dinner one night in East Glacier Park. The restaurant Serrano's had a very long wait list, and the kitchen was backed up. Betty had struck up a conversation with another couple from Denver, and when they were seated at a table for 4, they invited us to join them rather than continue waiting for our own table. As it was getting very late, we accepted. Even the waitress was happy for us be seated together, and said there was no problem doing separate checks. The couple showed us a picture of the chalet indicating they planned to visit it the next day. It was a great suggestion. Betty and I arrived at the Prince of Wales just as the dining area started serving lunch, so we managed to get a table right in front of a window overlooking the lake.

Prince of Wales chalet

Our table overlooking Waterton Lake 

Not only was the view tremendous, but the food was delicious. For my foodie friends, I thought I would include a couple pictures from our meal. In addition to the salad shown below, I had a bowl of butternut squash soup which is one of the best I have ever had. Betty thoroughly enjoyed her shepards pie.

Spinach & berry salad at Prince of Wales restaurant

Shepards pie at Prince of Wales restaurant

The waiter who served us was wearing a kilt. His co-worker, the doorman, also wore a kilt. I suspect he was a bit cold as even I wore long pants that day.

After lunch we took a hike in an attempt to get to Chutes Bertha Falls. We had seen Cameron Falls which was just a few steps off the road, but we wanted to take a short hike. We saw a doe and her fawns near the trail head, and then proceeded up the trail. After hiking for about an hour, we had still not reached the falls, so we had to head back as our permit for Waterton Lakes National Park was only until 4 pm.

Cameron Falls in Waterton Lakes National Park

Fawn at Chutes Bertha Falls trail head

Glimpse of Waterton Lake from the trail

Betty on Chutes Bertha Falls trail
Note the bear bell on her pack
Joe carried the bear spray

Returning across the border back into the States was a breeze, although we found the Canadian border guard to be more friendly.

Red Jammer Bus Tour

After experiencing the Going-to-the-Sun road as a passenger on the Red Jammer Bus tour, I think I would have been comfortable driving the road, at least as far as Logan Pass. It was not nearly as scary as the "death drive" we took earlier getting to Angel Lake.  That said, it was nice having someone else do the driving and not having to worry about finding parking at the various stops. Our driver was very knowledgable, so Betty and I learned a lot that we would not have doing it on our own.

Red Jammer Bus

The buses are actually longer than the length of vehicles currently allowed on the road, but since they have been using these vehicles for decades, they were grandfathered in. If it had been a nice day, they would have the canvas top rolled back for an even better view of the scenery. It was cold, and the sky kept sputtering raindrops, so the bus remained covered with the windows up except when taking photos.

Our first stop was the view of Goose Island in St. Mary Lake. I think the foul weather made the view all the more dramatic.

Goose Island in St. Mary Lake

Right at the viewing area was some very fresh bear scat -- our second near miss at seeing a grizzly bear. I noticed that it looks a lot different than the scat we saw earlier. When I queried our "jammer" about this, he said that the first one was eating a lot of berries, and this one had eaten a lot more grass.

Grizzly bear scat

Next we saw our first and only glacier -- Jackson Glacier. There was a second glacier on the route, but the weather made it impossible to see. The bottom line is most of the glaciers in the park are gone due to global warming.

Jackson glacier

I am afraid I don't know exactly where this was taken, but it was somewhere near Logan Pass. I think it is my best photo of Glacier National Park.

Glacier National Park

We stopped at Logan Pass which is on the continental divide.  

Logan Pass
on the Continental Divide

The driver drove us a bit beyond Logan Pass for a view of the road as it heads down the mountains towards the western entrance. He said he this was not part of the official tour. If that is true, he may have done this since we had not spent as much time at various stops on the drive up as most tours would because of the rain.

Road heading to the west entrance
after crossing the continental divide at Logan Pass

The good news is the sun came out on our return trip, and we got to see a rainbow develop to a complete arch across St. Mary Lake.

Rainbow over St. Mary Lake and Goose Island

It was nice way to end the tour and the day in Glacier National Park.

A full day exploring Glacier National Park

We started the day by going back to the Running Eagle Falls nature trail, this time with bear spray in hand. This was a nice easy hike to start the day. I found a USB cable on the path, and Betty found the owners of the dropped cable -- our good deed for the day.

Joe at Running Eagle Falls

We then headed up to Many Glacier Road which is a valley road that dead ends at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn. We were told this was a good drive to spot wildlife. Much of the road follows the edge of Lake Sherburne. I stopped to take a picture of the lake with the aspens showing their fall colors.

Aspen along Lake Sherborne

While there someone pointed out the bear scat by the side of the road and the bear prints below in the sand of the lake shore. They had seen bear out on the sand earlier in the day. It was our first near miss for a bear sighting.

 

Grizzly bear scat

Grizzly bear tracks on the banks of the Sherburne River

We drove by the Many Glacier Hotel, but it was starting to drizzle and the parking was full, so we decided to keep moving.

Many Glacier Hotel

We had a nice lunch at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn before heading to the St. Mary Visitor Center. This is the main visitor center for the east side of Glacier National Park. 

Joe at St. Mary entrance
Glacier National Park 

 

St. Mary Visitor Center at Glacier National Park
Note how straight the flags are flying -- very windy

East Flattop Mountain
as viewed from the St. Mary Visitor Center

I was a bit concerned about driving the Going-to-the-Sun road as all the guides talked about how narrow and curvy it is. Even the owner of the motel where we were staying mentioned how it was good we would be driving from east to west as we would be on the inside lane closer to the mountain. Since I really wanted to enjoy the view and not have to keep my eye on the road, we were thinking about using the free shuttle. However, the free shuttle on the east side is less frequent that the one of the west side coming once every 45 minutes, and what if the bus is full and we have to wait for a second one before moving on to the next stop. We could spend too much of our valuable time waiting for the bus. So we opted to take one of the Red Jammer Bus tours which were highly recommended by TripAdvisor and other sources. We were signed up for the 3 hour Easern Alpine tour that started at 3 pm. Here is where I messed up. I made sure we arrived at the St. Mary Visitor Center well before 3 pm. The very distinctive buses were pulling up just about 3 pm, but they were from the all day tour just stopping to let their passengers use the restroom and look around. One of the drivers said to just wait and our bus would show up. By now it was after 3 pm, and the same bus driver came out to inform us that he had been wrong. We were suppose to catch our bus at the St. Mary Lodge, not the St. Mary Visitor Center. YIKES! He suggested we could drive to the Rising Sun stop, the first stop on the bus tour. We jumped in our car and raced to Rising Sun. Betty went into the hotel to ask if the bus had already left. They were very nice and called St. Mary Lodge to inquire. There is no cell phone service, so there is no way to contact the driver's directly. However, the drivers do check in for messages at stops where there is a land phone. The bus had not arrived at Rising Sun because they actually spent some time trying to track us down at the Lodge. We were both embarrassed and grateful, and we appreciated how gracious everyone was for the delay we had caused.

I will write about the Red Janner Bus tour in my next blog entry.

Arrived at Glacier National Park

We arrived at East Glacier Park and checked in at the Mountain Pine Motel for a three night stay.

Mountain Pine Motel in East Glacier Park

The owner was very helpful at pointing out things we should do as first time visitors. Since we had a half day, he suggested we go up to Two Medicine Road to enter the park where we could find a nice short natural trail to see Running Eagle Falls.

Betty at Running Eagle Falls Nature Trail sign

When we arrived at the trail head, we realized we had left our canister of bear spray back in our motel room. Betty was hesitant to walk the trail without it, so we drove on to the end of the road which terminates at Two Medicine Lake. We considered taking a boat ride to tour the lake, but the wind was howling and the waters on the lake were choppy. Given Betty is prone to motion sickness, we decided against it.

Sinopah boat on Two Medicine Lake

Before heading back to our motel, we decided to check out how the other half lives by visiting the Glacier Park Lodge. We arrived just in time to catch a short tour of the lodge which was very interesting. The large vertical tree trunks around the perimeter of the lobby are Douglas fir that were harvested in Oregon during the winter so they would retain their bark. The lodge was so successful they started building additional wings to the hotel just a year after it opened.

Interior of Glacier Park Lodge

View of railroad depot from entrance of Glacier Park Lodge

Return to Helena and night in Choteau

After the Gates of the Mountains, we returned to Helena for gas, dinner, and to visit the Cathedral of St. Helena.

Cathedral of St. Helen with Betty's head

Interior of Cathedral of St. Helen

We then headed up towards Glacier National Park stopping in Choteau for the night. Here we stayed at the Stage Stop Inn. If you are ever in the area, we can highly recommend it. The room was more spacious than most. They had two luggage stands instead of one. The WiFi was very fast. We were able to do our laundry, and we vied over who was going to sit in the comfy, black leather lazy boy chair.

Stage Stop Inn
with comfy lazy boy chair

For dinner that night we ate at the restaurant next door, the Elk Country Grill. We were both eligible for the "seniors" menu. We each had 3 shrimp, corn on the cob, a large baked potatoes, and a cup of delicious broccoli cheddar soup for under $10 a piece.

The next morning we visited the Old Trail Museum which is small, but worth a visit if you are in the area.

Old Trail Museum in Choteau

Betty next to bear trap outside of the Old Trail Museum