Day 3
July 4, 2019
Happy Fourth of July!
After enjoying a relaxing morning sleeping in and watching a couple episodes of Stranger Things, Season 3, I decided to head out and explore some more of the park. At the suggestion of my host, Mia, I ventured to the Two Medicine Lake and Twin Falls area of the park.
The Two Medicine area of the park was about a two hour drive away from Columbia Falls. Instead of driving through the park and taking the glorious Going to the Sun Road, I drove Route 2 around the park and then headed north through East Glacier, MT to the Two Medicine park entrance. Similar to the Many Glacier entrance, the first few miles of the road are not owned by the park, and caution should be used on this road. There are a few potholes, but mostly you need to be careful of free range cattle! On my way back from the lake, I nearly hit a herd of cows!
Since it was a holiday, the park entrance had some extra precautions. There was an extra ranger at the entrance who grilled me about what my plans were, if I have any fireworks, if I have any alcohol, etc before being granted permission to enter the park.
After a short uphill drive through the park, you reach the Two Medicine Lake campground site and parking. There is not much in the area except the lake, a campground, and a store.
I arrived at the lake around 12:30 pm, so headed down to the boat dock to see if there were any available seats on the 1 pm boat across the lake. Unfortunately, there were not, but I was put on a waitlist to see if others did not show up. So as 1 pm approached, myself and the others on the waitlist were waiting around the dock to see if we lucked out and got a spot. One by one, everyone on the waitlists’ names were called. Everyone. Except. Me. Come on!
So lonely me retreated in defeat and bought a ticket for the 3 pm boat. So what is there to do for two hours while I waited, with no cell signal or wifi? Not much. I perused the store about three times, ordered some soup for lunch, and then sat and twiddled my thumbs for the rest of the time.
Similar to Many Glacier, there is actually a trailhead right at the base of the lake that you can take instead of the boat. However, the boat shaves off about 3.5 miles, or 7 miles round trip, of the trail. With my sore feet, I unfortunately could not add an extra 7 miles to the hike.
So I stuck it out and waited for the 3 pm boat tour. The boat tour was very pleasant and like the tours at Swiftcurrent Lake/Lake Josephine, the boat captain also told us some history of the area. The 3 pm boat tour was also a guided hike, so our boat captain disembarked with us (another captain took over and sailed it back) and led a hike to the Twin Falls. I decided not to stay with the tour as their pace was much slower than mine. Plus by going ahead, I was able to have the falls all to myself!
The hike is only 2 miles roundtrip, so it did not take long for me to reach the waterfalls. The path however was very muddy and had to sometimes go off path to get around large puddles. I also did not see any wildlife on the trail beside butterflies! The Twin Falls were very pretty and it was great to explore them by myself! However, I did not stay long as the tour group started to show up.
I walked back to the dock and ended up just hanging around for 45 minutes. The mosquitoes in this area were intense! Everyone waiting around was getting eaten alive!
It was a quick ride back to the parking area, and then I headed straight back to Columbia Falls. As I mentioned above, on the road back, I almost ran into a herd of black cows! Eek! The Blackfoot Reservation has free range cattle, so when driving in the area, you have to be very careful.
Since it is the fourth of July, the day would not be complete without fireworks! At dusk, my host, Mia, invited me out to the bonfire she had started. It was so nice to just sit by the warm fire. Once night fell, the fireworks show started all around us! I have never seen so many people setting off large fireworks! We had moved to a spot in her yard where we could see Whitefish’s fireworks, but then to our right, left, and behind us, everyone was setting them off! It was quite the site to see! It was a great way to end my last full day in Montana!
