Kalispell, Montana, United States Travelodge by Wyndham Kalispell
| 350 N Main St, Kalispell, MT, US |
| 1-406-7556123 |
After going to bed even before dark, around 7 pm, I was shocked to see that it was 7 am when I woke up, or was ready to wake up.
I had been awake but it was still dark then. So I tried to get up and about as fast as possible. It was cold outside my sleeping bag, and even colder outside the car. I could not find my hat and my hands were freezing as I prepared and ate my granola. I desperately needed coffee. I had no desire to stay another night at Johnson's although it was not so bad - I did eventually find the camper water faucet. So I left the campground by 7:30 am. I went over to Glacier Village and looked for coffee. A mother-daughter duo (I think) were also on the prowl for coffee and the daughter led us to the resort restaurant where we got our coffees. I was chatting with the mother and knocked over one of her coffees. I felt so bad since they had been so nice to me. I offered to I get her another - coffee is not cheap in Glacier Village - but she said no - I should have insisted.
I re-entered the National Park and went to the visitor center as soon as it opened at 8 and bought my canister of bear spray - which has proved unnecesary. I also bought a Glacier NP hat to wear until I find my beret (I hope) and a book on George Bird Grinnell, the founder of Glacier NP. I read the introduction where it says that he grew up on the wooded shore of Manhattan Island. What? Then I started my drive on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. It is not so bad as some of the gravel roads I had been on in Montana or rt 49 on my way to the St Mary's visitor center and eastern entrance to this famed highway.
The road was smooth, the grades were moderated and there were rocks to serve as guardrails of sorts. Still, I found it a challenging drive because you didn't want to drive so slowly that cars piled up behind you as you needed if you hoped to see the scenery. I tried to pull over whenever there was a place. But with the volume of traffic in cars and people, it was impossible for me to look around at the landscape while I was driving. It was also pretty difficult to find places to stop - understandable since this was a mountain road, but when there were pull-offs, they were almsot always full. Sometimes I would pull over to the other side to see something, but it was difficult to get back going in the right direction if you did that....and a bit dangerous as well.
I decided to stop at a few of the hot spots and to do the Three Falls hike that the ranger recommended. So I stopped at the Rose Bridge first, then at the Sun Point. I took a selfie at the spot shortly after St mry's, which was the young woman's favorite, and sent it out to show that I had made it to Glacier NP.
Then I took the Three Falls hike in the other direction from Sun Point. The first falls was about .6 miles in and then St. Mary's Falls, the second at around 1.2 miles in. A couple greeted me along the way and told me that I should really go beyond the first falls to the little beach there because it was so nice. And I did. I had planned to continue to the 2nd falls anyway. Another couple told me that I should continue beyond the second falls to Victoria falls because it was only 200 yds or 15 minutes farther. I checked with some other people coming back and they said oh, no - Victoria Falls is about 2 miles from the beginning. Then I asked someone else....just to be sure...and a young woman with a slight accent said that in fact there were 3 falls beyond the 2nd falls and, after hearing that, I decided to go for the unnamed 3rd falls and it was my favorite.
All this time hiking, it had gotten considerably warmer - let's say hot - so I stripped off my heavy wool sweater and my light wool sweater, but I coulnd't strip off my jeans and they were black .
..and very hot. Plus I had taken what I considered enought water for a relaively short hike, but somehow this ended up taking much longer and I was getting thirsty....and hungry since i only had 2 granola bars. Once I ate my 2nd granola bar at the 3rd waterfall and drank the rest of my water coming back to St Mary's waterfall, I was ready for the hike to end. But except for its being hot.....and crowded with people, it was great scenery and the waterfalls were beautiful.. I saw several grasshoppers and took a photo of a pretty little butterfly. Otherwise no wildlife, just lots of humans. Many of the humans were very pleasant - people greeted each other pleasantly. I had nice conversations with several couples. I ran into a woman I had met at Theodor Rossevelt NP and we caught up on our hike experiences there and expereiences here at Glacier. They had been at Glacier for 3 days and were disappointed. She had been here 10 years ago and said it was much different. I finished the hike around 2:30 pm after starting 9:30 am. I think it was only about a 3 mile walk. It is not possible to go that slowly, is it?
Since it was now so late, I felt I had to hurry to get off the Going-to-the-Sun Road by dusk so I vowed to only stop at select places. The places I stopped were selected more on availability than desirability, but I did get a fairly nice selection of views from my various stops. I had wanted to stop at Logan's Pass but there was even a sign up that there was no parking space available.
Some of the road was trickier than other parts - there were some curves, some narrow spaces, some cars going over the yellow lines, some people tailgating but mostly it was doable, if a bit scary. I saw a few red buses and signs for the shuttle buses and vowed that next time I would avail myself of their services.
Once I got through the Western Glacier NP gate, I stopped to check for nearby hotels. The list was staggering in terns of prices for these rooms, even the basic Super 8's. I saw a reasonably priced Travelodge but it was in some place called Kalispell. Then I saw that it was only 24 miles away. I am not totally sure if it is in the right direction but I booked it and arrived there after negotiating the town's street repairs. On the website, there was something about parking so I was worried that I would have to truck my stuff from blocks away, but there is an inner courtyard for parking. The woman at the desk told me to park in the center so the people could park next to their doors (on the first floor I presume). Now I think why shouldn't the people who are on the 2nd floor and have to carry up their stuff have parking spaces that are closer? Why shouldn't they??
I asked about food nearby and the desk clerk mentioned an Asian Buffet so I tried to find that and ended up walking around several blocks with disrupted sidewalks and long walk lights and seeing a huge DQ line - what was DQ - I then saw it was Dairy Queen like KFC I guess. So you probably should not get a Dragon roll Sushi in Kalispell MT. It was not the best sushi I have had but at least it was sushi. Now it is almost 10 pm - the longest I have been up in days....so time to wind this down.
2025-05-22