Two Medicine

Friday, July 1, 2005

We woke up, packed and checked out, then drove out to Saint Mary's and the Park Cafe. It's a nice little restaurant that Shannon recommended. The service was a little slow, but only because they were very busy. The food was really good, much better than "park food". We drove South to Two Medicine where we started around the lake towards the West. The weather was perfect and the sky was blue; it made for some amazing scenery. We followed the trail and passed several ponds and lots of flower covered meadows. We took a short side trip in to a waterfall that stair-stepped down the mountain. A bit further along there was a fork in the trail, one side went to a foot bridge, the other to a horse ford. Chris said we'd be able to cross easily, so we took the short cut.

When we reached the bank of the river there was a family sitting there having lunch. They encouraged us to try crossing; it was deeper and wider than we expected. Chris went first, and after a few minutes managed to get across without getting too wet. The rest of us followed: the water was icy cold, and the bottom was slippery and muddy in several spots. Once across we felt a sense of accomplishment, and the family cheered for us. We continued along the trail, up some switch-backs, and then across the side of a mountain covered in trees. As we neared the other side we could see the boat that we wanted to take back to the trail head going to the boat landing; that got us moving faster! Rick moved ahead and we just made it onto the boat in time.

We drove back to the Park Cafe for lunch where we sat outside and Rick started and ended his meal with pie. It was delicious! Once we were full we drove back across the Going to the Sun Road towards the West. Once again the views were fantastic. On the Western side of the park we pulled in to the Lake McDonald lodge and checked in to our rooms. This lodge was in better condition, and our rooms were quite a bit larger and quieter, with a nice view of the lake. We walked around the hotel a bit, and then sat in the bar and had cocktails and appetizers while we chit-chatted about the trip so far. Afterwards we headed upstairs to our rooms for a good nights sleep, our last morning would be our earliest.