Yesterday we traveled to the East Entrance of Glacier National Park and spent the night at St. Mary's, a very small village with only a couple of motels, a couple of restaurants, one combination grocery/gas station/curio shop and not much else.

We had met an older gentleman in Browning, MT, not far from Glacier earlier in the day who told us of a beautiful area that locals think is just as pretty as Glacier Park. He grew up in Glacier and still lives out in the wilderness without electricity or indoor plumbing.  We followed his advice and stayed on Rt 2 out of Browning and took Rt 49 at the village of East Glacier Park.  This took us to Two Medicine Lake, an incredibly beautiful area.

    
Two Medicine Lake.  Spectacular!

Another view of Two Medicine Lake area.

In St Mary's, we spent the night at a little vintage 50's type motel (no air conditioning, clean, but simple).  The motel and restaurant near by were originally started by a local couple who lived into their 90's.  He was also a guide in the area.

View from the motel toward the lake nearby.

The interior of the restaurant was filled with everything from old signs to old traps to harness, pelts and antlers and everything else you could think of.  The walls were log and the tables covered in red and white checked oilcloth.  I could very easily just move right in.  I love it.  The food was just incredible.  The bread was homemade, the soup was delicious and our hamburger steak was more like meatloaf.  Breakfast was oatmeal and more homemade bread.  Can't beat that kind of food!

We entered Glacier Park from the east and the peaks were beautiful but not as snow covered as I had expected.  We had been told that the pass had only been opened the week before and I had visions of snow covering the peaks and drifts 8 feet high on each side of the road.

   
We had just entered the park and saw several cars parked and people rushing to the other side of the road.  We knew that they had probably spotted some type of wildlife and were trying to get a photo.  Look at about the middle of the photo above.  That brown thing in the middle just below the trees is a GRIZZLY BEAR!!!!!! just ambling along.  He was big and I was pretty glad that he was way up on that hill.  I never dreamed I would actually see one in the wild.

   
Above is a Big Horn Sheep resting on a spot of snow.  It was really pretty hot today (mid 90's) and he had picked a great spot to cool off.

This was about the most snow covered peak we saw.  In the 1850's there were about 150 glaciers in the park and by the mid 1960's that had dropped to about 50.  There are now only about 25 glaciers left and they are receding rapidly.  Scientists believe that they will all be gone in 2 to 3 decades.  What a shame.