Lake St. Mary and the east side of Glacier National Park

For our last full day in Glacier, we drove over the pass to the east side of the mountains. Unfortunately, the weather was still overcast on the west side of the pass, so we didn't have very good views of the mountains as we drove over the pass. Instead, we just drove straight over and down the other side. On our way to our next campsite, we stopped at a turn off for a short hike. We hiked to St. Mary Falls and then continued to Virginia Falls, a total of 1.2 miles in from the road. At Virginia Falls, we stopped for lunch along the bank of the creek, then headed back down the trail. Penelope decided that she wanted to walk along the trail, but soon she got tired and was back in the backpack.

After our hike, we continued driving to our campground. We had wanted to stay at Rising Sun, but it was closed to people in tents because there was too much bear activity in the area. Instead, we drove to the last campground along the road: St. Mary. In contrast to the west side of the mountains, which were very forested, the east side was flatter and mostly prairie. Our campsite was on the edge of a big open field, and when we arrived, it was incredibly windy from the storm the night before. Setting up our tent in the high wind was a bit of a challenge, but we got it up and secured without it blowing away. While it was windy, it was also very sunny, which felt nice. With our tent set up, we then took advantage of one bonus feature at this campsite: free showers. It felt really good to wash off all the dirt and grime from the previous days.

We had a snack at our campsite, then headed to the boat dock at Rising Sun. We had a 4pm reservation for a boat ride on Lake St. Mary. The lake was a bit choppy from the wind, but the boat ride was very smooth. We got great views of the mountains, with the sun low in the sky behind them. Our captain told us lots of interesting facts about the mountains and the park. For example, it is called Glacier National Park not because it has lots of glaciers (it doesn't have many, and they are not impressive), but because glaciers carved out all the mountains during the last ice age, with some glaciers that were nearly 2000 ft thick. In addition, the rock that forms the mountains used to be at the bottom of giant lakes before the uplift that produced the Rockies, leading to the striated but "flaky" nature of the rocks. In contrast to the west side, which had lots of foot hills in front of the main mountains, the east side had no foot hills. This made the mountains look much larger, as some of them rose nearly 5000 ft from the plains and the level of the lake. We really enjoyed the views from the east side more than the west side, and we were glad that we started on the west side and then headed east.

Our boat tour took us to a small dock on the lake where we could walk in a short distance to Berring Falls. It was a nice waterfall, and we enjoyed taking some photos. The trail continued past the waterfall, but we weren't planning on going any farther since we had to get back to the boat. However, while we were looking at the falls, a man came up to us and others from the boat, and told us that a small black bear was sitting just off the trail past the falls eating berries. A bunch of people in the group were very excited to go see it, myself included. However, Penelope told us that she did not want to see a bear. Katie took Penelope back to the boat, while I joined a few others to go look for the bear (perhaps not the smartest thing to do, but we figured we had some safety in numbers). It was happily eating about 15-20 feet from the trail, ignoring us watching it. I put my telephoto lens on my camera, but the bear was so buried in the bushes that it was hard for me to get a clear shot. Still, it was pretty awesome to watch, and we were all sad that we had to get back to our boat.

Back on the boat, we traveled back to our starting point, watching the mountains around us. The crew had a very hard time docking the boat because of the high winds, and it took them many tries. At one point, one of the crew members almost fell off the dock into the water. It was kind of fun to watch, although it seemed quite nerve-racking for the crew. Back on land, we drove 5 minutes away to the restaurant at Rising Sun. It was fun to eat a real dinner in the middle of the park, and the food was very good. Then it was off to our campsite.

By the time we arrived back at our tent, the wind was beginning to die down, and our tent was still standing. We had bought a wax-coated fire starter and used it to start a fire, since we were concerned that the still relatively high wind would make fire starting difficult. With a nice warm fire, we made smores for desert, then Penelope and I went for a walk around the campground. After a little more playing time, it was off to bed with Penelope, who actually managed to fall asleep pretty easily this time (perhaps because she hadn't taken a nap at all that day). Katie and I enjoyed our warm fire, and ate more smores. The sun set behind the mountains, and the stars started to come out. Unfortunately, the sky was partly cloudy, so it wasn't the best weather for stargazing. I got out my tripod and took a few star photos anyway, though, including a cool one with a tent that was being illuminated from the inside. Eventually the clouds got thicker and most of the stars were hidden, so it was time for bed.