ECOTOURISM

Wildlife of Glacier National Park

Tour Details

Prices are per person based on double occupancy and are given in US Dollars.

Day 1: Arrive Kalispell, Montana/Gateway to Glacier
Meet the group in the lobby of the Kalispell Grand Hotel in Kalispell, Montana, at 10:00am for an orientation lunch and then drive to Glacier National Park to begin a western adventure. Within minutes you will be offered many scenic opportunities, including wildlife encounters at “Goat Lick”, where exposed minerals attract mountain goats and other animals. The first destination is Lewis Overthrust Fault, Glacier’s most famous geological site, which will give an overview of the geological history of the park. The first two nights, stay at Glacier Park Lodge, one of the historic hotels within the park. Built in 1912 and 1913 out of logs cut from cedar and Douglas fir trees that were five to 800 years old, the lodge is commonly referred to as the “Big Tree Hotel”. This magnificent property, steeped in the history and culture of the Great Northern Railway and the Blackfeet Indians, is nestled at the foot of Squaw Peak Mountain, providing a wonderful home base from that you can explore. The lodge has lovely gardens, a reading room, and a heated outdoor pool, all with spectacular mountain views.

Days 2-3: Two Medicine Valley
This morning, drive east to Glacier National Park, commencing your retreat into one of the United States’ most treasured natural landscapes. As you follow the Flathead River, wildlife viewing opportunities abound. At Goat Lick, exposed minerals attract mountain goats, the park’s emblematic animal. You learn about the region’s tumultuous geological history at Lewis Overthrust Fault, a dramatic site for study by scientists from around the world. A boat cruise across Two Medicine Lake reveals the grandeur that is Glacier as peaks rise on all sides to ring the sapphire waters. Later, hike through winding Two Medicine Valley, bright with multicolored rock layers on the mountain walls and once a site for sacred Native American rituals. Your accommodations are at remarkable Glacier Park Lodge. Built by the Great Northern Railway in 1913 to attract visitors to the park’s wonders, the hotel lobby features log pillars over 40 feet high and 40 inches in diameter, crafted from Douglas fir trees hundreds of years old. The Blackfeet Indians, awed by the size of the timbers, called it “Omahkoyis”, or Big Tree Lodge. Spend two nights at this historic hotel, which will be your base for explorations in the area.

Days 4-5: Many Glacier Valley
At Many Glacier, you enter one of the park’s iconic valleys. Scoured into a broad U-shape by rivers of ice that retreated some 10,000 years ago, Many Glacier features granite crags, waterfalls glissading from icy ledges high above and alpine lakes set like gems in the rocky backdrop. You'll readily see why the Blackfeet gave the name “Backbone of the World” to the greater Glacier Park ecosystem. Keep an eye out for black bears and grizzlies feeding among the bushes in avalanche chutes, mountain goats and bighorn sheep perched on cliffs, and elk grazing in the meadows. Your hotel, built in 1915, is a grand Swiss-style chalet meant to complement its setting in the “American Alps”, in the vision of the rail barons who constructed it. It sits regally on the edge of Swiftcurrent Lake, overlooking a panorama of crenellated peaks. Walks, hikes and boat rides take you right into to the natural environs and close to an active glacier, an experience that future visitors may be less likely to have as global climate change hastens the melting of the park’s permanent ice features.

Day 6: Going-to-the-Sun Road
An engineering marvel completed in 1932, Going-to-the-Sun Road twists and climbs around Glacier’s granite spine all the way to the Continental Divide. Waterfall spray creates rainbows as streams pour off rock precipices, while serrated peaks poke the blue sky. On the summit at Logan Pass, wander trails through alpine tundra thick with white beargrass and avalanche lilies, listening for the whistle of marmots darting among the rocks. Cresting the divide, descend to the wetter west side of the park, where thick forests of fir and cedar hug the mountain flanks, and fern and mosses grow in their shadows. At Lake McDonald Lodge, another historic hostelry evocative of Swiss alpine architecture, there’s time to relax in front of the soaring stone fireplace and muse on the week’s wonders.

Day 7: Kalispell/Home
This morning get an early start back to Kalispell for flights back home.