Our last few days in the park were spent in the Two Medicine area. This is where we encountered mosquitos - in impressive, north-woods quantities. Bring repellant - it will serve you well.
Although we took several hikes in the two medicine area, they were for the most part not as scenic or interesting as our hikes in the rest of the park. The exception is the climb to any one of the nearby peaks, which offer spectacular views.
The walk to Running Eagle Falls is short and level, with a substantial portion of the trail accessible to wheelchairs. Various plant species are pointed out with signs, and at the end of a quarter mile or so the paved trail ends with a sweeping view of Running Eagle Falls and the creek. Continuing on a dirt path, crossing the stream at shallow points, allows you to get very close to the falls. When we were there, we found a horde of butterflys feasting on minerals leaching out of the rocks in the right side of this photo.
The concessioner offers a boat ride on Two Medicine Lake which takes you to the other side of the lake, and back. Most people use it to access trailheads on the far side of the lake. We confess we used it mainly to get away from the bugs. We did manage to see a Common Merganser and a Common Loon on this ride (a huge flock of Common Merganser of both sexes were seen on Swiftcurrent Lake).
The scenery in Two Medicine is less relentlessly alpine than what is seen at Many Glacier or on the high points of Going-To-The-Sun road. There are no glaciers in the Two Medicine area, but snow accumulations can be thick enough in winter to persist well into summer.
Just after sunset one night Appistoki Peak caught a glint of alpenglow. Your photographer braved a swarm of 3.4 billion mosquitos to get several bracketed shots, of which this one was the best.
Departing the park, we decided to drive up to St. Mary and take Going-To-The-Sun Road across one last time on our way back to Kalispell. About a mile short of Trail of the Cedars we were tooling down the road and, following a curve in the road, all of a sudden we were confronted by stopped traffic. Traffic piled up behind us, getting ever closer to the blind curve, and one car had to run off the road to avoid rear-ending another vehicle. In front of us, people were yelling angrily at each other, gesticulating wildly, and dashing across the road in front of traffic coming from the other direction. Eventually, a park ranger got everything moving again without anyone getting injured or killed.
Discreet investigation revealed that this traffic jam was caused by a driver from Los Angeles, another driver from Boston, and another driver from Atlanta deciding they needed a picture of the rear end of a white-tail deer. I guess when the animals are in the park the world has to stop so they can get pictures, but when they eat their flowerbeds they just want the deer killed....
Our favorite restaurant of the trip was Russel's Trails End near McDonald Lodge. We stopped for a farewell meal and pulled the ticket of our favorite server. Then it was back to Kalispell.
Jeff Medkeff's home page.
Jeff's astronomy pages.
Copyright © Jeff Medkeff, 2002, All Rights Reserved.