Glacier - Two Medicine

On Tuesday, we met up with Brian’s parents in East Glacier around 4:00 and headed out to see the town. The Glacier Park Lodge was beautifully situated in front of snow-capped peaks.


So of course, we had to pose in front of it.


In front of the lodge was one of the red buses from the 1920s. They’ve been renovated and are still in use today as tour buses.


The flower planters outside the lodge were really pretty.


The interior of the lodge was the most impressive, though. The central area was enormous, with huge logs for supports. “Logs” isn’t even really the right word – they were really trees, with the bark still on.


We sat by the fireplace for a while, where a man would occasionally poke the raging fire and add another three- or four-foot log.

That night, we all went out to the Firebrand for hamburgers, and then Sarah and Brian drove into the park to set up camp at Two Medicine. There were plenty of campsites available, including one that was only separated from Two Medicine Lake by a meadow area and therefore had great views. We took that one.

The next morning, we walked across the meadow and took pictures of the lake.


Here’s Brian’s mom:


We drove to a nearby picnic area to make breakfast, thinking that cooking bacon in our campsite might not be such a good idea, given the prevalence of bears. The picnic area turned out to be quite possibly even prettier than our campsite.




The plan for the day was a hike up to Upper Two Medicine Lake. Brian’s parents took a boat ride across Two Medicine, while Sarah and Brian hiked the length of Two Medicine. We all met at Twin Falls, a short ways from the end of Two Medicine. The falls were flowing hard.




And, of course, we had to pose in front of the falls in various groups.



From there, we hiked to Upper Two Medicine. The hike traversed several patches of snow and was a bit treacherous, but we all made it.



After a stop for lunch, we headed on down.


Brian’s parents took the boat back while Sarah and Brian hiked back, this time along the south side of the lake. We got some pretty views along the way.



We took a short side trip to Aster Falls.


Our hike ended right at the boat dock, where we took one last photo of Two Medicine Lake before meeting Brian’s parents.


Afterwards, we went back to the campsite and hung out for a while. We drank some beer and wine, and Sarah made a fabulous spaghetti dinner. Then we headed over to Running Eagle Falls, also known as Trick Falls.


The “trick” is a second waterfall that pours out of a hole about two thirds of the way down from the main falls, on the right side. The water was running so hard, though, that the two falls were almost running together, so we could just barely see the trick.


Still in a good mood from the beer and wine, Brian thought it would be a good idea to pretend he was holding up the waterfall.


As it turned out, that trick works better at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. So he tried again, this time drinking the waterfall.


That night, we went to the campfire talk, presented by a Native American storyteller. Afterwards, Two Medicine Lake was calm and pretty.


The next morning, we met Brian’s parents at their cabin and then started driving to St. Mary, just a little ways north of East Glacier.