The Backbone of the WorldBy Rod Lopez-FabregaHome of the Native American Blackfeet Nation for hundreds of years and a paradise for humans for millennia, Glacier National Park in Montana is Nature at her most dramatic, with plunging valleys, sparkling waters, towering mountains and a haven for all the wildlife that once inhabited all the northern regions of the United States. Today, historic hotels and inns and the National Park Service make it an easy and comfortable place to visit.
To accommodate those thousands of visitors, back country lodges were built early in the twentieth century. These are all a bit faded these days, but as they say in real estate, it’s location, location, location, and these venerable old queens of the mountains are all set in spectacular scenic locations. In addition, in more recent times, privately owned lodges, resorts and hotels have been built just outside the boundaries of the Glaciers Park. So, lodgings in and around the Park range all the way from McDonald Lodge, one of the finest examples of a Swiss Chalet hotel remaining in the United States and within the Park boundaries, to the Many Glacier Hotel, a grand dame somewhat past her prime, to the first-rate The Resort at Glacier in Saint Mary just off the Park boundaries inside the Blackfeet Reservation. For other options, see Glacier Park Lodging Reservations. As the story goes, the Many Glacier Lodge was one of the first two structures built by the Great Northern Railway, the organization that initiated the development of visitor lodges in the Park. The company put in a sawmill at Many Glacier to process the logs in support of their building activities. When the National Park Service took over control of the park lodges, they asked the Railway to get rid of the sawmill as it was not a natural part of the landscape of the Glacier Park. After years of the Railway ignoring the National Park Service's requests, John Lewis, head of the NPS, took the liberties to blow it up himself, reportedly as the grand finale of a birthday party for his daughter.
Activities in the park include bicycling and camping, vehicle camping in first-come-first served campgrounds, backcountry backpacking with guides, whitewater rafting and fly fishing for trout (native Bull Trout are protected and must be released immediately if caught accidentally) with such outfitters as Glacier Raft Company, day hiking, trail riding with such outfitters as Mule Shoe Outfitters, and all sorts of skiing and snowshoeing activities in the winter months (yes, parts of the Park are accessible during the cold seasons).
A popular activity that is suitable for both the avid hiker and for the more passive tourist is the scenic boat tour. One point of departure is the dock at Many Glacier Resort for the short boat ride across Swiftcurrent Lake to a jetty on the far side. There, those who wish to hike may do so across a connecting trail to Lake Josephine where a second boat carries more ambitious travelers to the back country where a final choice is available: a short and fairly two-mile level hike with a Glacier National Park naturalist to Grinnell Lake or a more arduous six-mile climbing hike to visit Grinnell Glacier. Wildlife encounters with small critters such as squirrels, marmots and such are very likely, and the possibility of an encounter of the third kind with grandfather Grizzly is always to be considered. Since groups of hikers are generally large enough and noisy enough to discourage any such encounters, they are most likely to be momentary, from a distance, and generally eagerly avoided by the bears. Glacier National Park is also remarkable in that every type of wildlife that was native to the Park before the coming of Europeans is alive and well in this still largely pristine place. That includes a full range of carnivores such as bobcat, lynx, mountain lion, raccoon, black bear, grizzly bear, red fox, coyote, wolf, river otter, badger and wolverine. Prey animals for these carnivores include snowshoe hare, jackrabbit, rodents of all stripes and more, as well as many of the larger hoofed animals. Of these hoofed animals, the most prominent residents are: pronghorn antelope, moose, white-tailed deer, American elk, caribou, bison, the sure-footed mountain goat and bighorn sheep with their distinctive curving horns. Birdlife is equally plentiful. The Park is a veritable Noah’s Ark, and it is a small wonder that Native Americans of long ago considered it a cornucopia of everything a human being could possible need for sustenance.
Glacier National Park is actually only part of this spectacular corner of North America. Combined with its Canadian neighbor, Waterton Lakes National Park, the system has been known as the Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park since 1932. Because of their unique and exceptional natural beauty, biological diversity and cultural heritage, the parks were jointly designated a World Heritage Site in 1995, an honor shared with the Taj Mahal, The Great Barrier Reef, the Egyptian Pyramids and other world sites of great value to humanity. Getting There:
Ground transportation from the airport in Kalispell is available to Whitefish, the main southern entrance to the Park. Some ground transportation sources are: Airport Shuttle Service 406-752-2842; Flathead-Glacier Transport Co. 406-892-3390; Kalispell Taxi 406-752-4022; Wild Horse Limousine 406-756-2290 Photo Credits: Rod Lopez-Fabrega; Travel Montana; Glacier National Park; National Park Service |
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That region of North America known as the Crown of the Continent is a vast area containing more than 24 active glaciers and “…10 million acres of plunging valleys, sparkling waters, dramatic mountains, native prairie, and distinctive small towns in Canada’s southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta provinces and in the north-central state of Montana in the United States.” That is how Steve Thompson, Senior Program Manager of the Glacier Field Office of the National Parks Conservation Association describes this spectacular region. One of Mr. Thompson’s prime interests--together with the NPCA’s partner, the National Geographic Society--is in the protection of one of the most precious jewels of this Crown of the Continent, Glacier National Park.
Under pressures from reduced budgets, threatening mining interests and global warming that are impacting its ancient rivers of ice, Glacier National Park remains a truly awesome country. Vast in scale and for 10,000 years a sacred place revered by Native Americans as a pristine paradise with an abundance of wildlife and the fruits of nature. The various groups making up the Blackfeet Nation referred to this area as the “Backbone of the World”, and they enjoyed it as a sort of summer camp endowed to all living creatures by the Great Spirit. This tribe still maintains certain rights, though access to some sites considered sacred by the Blackfeet has been restricted due to the demands of accommodating the thousands of visitors who have been visiting the park annually since its official inception as a national park in 1910.
However, by far, the majority of visitors prefer the options of less physical but just as spectacular sightseeing offered by the famous Red Buses. For almost 70 years until they finally wore out and were taken off service in 1999, these unique vehicles with roll-back canvas roofs transported tourists through the Rockies and across the Continental Divide. Now, the fleet is back again, completely rebuilt from the road up by the Ford Motor Company. 
These unusual vehicles pick passengers up at the major resorts and carry them along 50 miles of the awe-inspiring Going-to-the-Sun Road, an engineering marvel of a highway that runs along the eastern banks of Lake McDonald and northward, ascending to hug cliff sides along one of the most spectacular drives anywhere. Passengers in these open top buses look across to jagged, Alpine peaks of mind-boggling scale and down to valleys where forests of giant fir trees resemble prickly green carpets. The road rises gradually to a modern visitors’ center at Logan Pass and beyond. Most visitors get off at Logan Pass and hike up further along a well paved path for possible views of wildlife that include fearless mountain goats. The Going-to-the-Sun Road is open Mid-June to Mid-September, and portions are accessible (depending on weather conditions) the remaining months. 
Another option is a tour on a conventional bus with guide/driver Ed DesRosier, a Blackfeet with Welsh connections. Mr. DesRosier’s 
