06-06-2026 Saturday, Many Glacier area

- June 13, 2026

A lot of people left early this morning, so the campground is sparse. There is light rain in the forecast today, and I hope it stays that way. We are driving to Many Glacier this morning. We did the road two days ago, thinking we would see the Northern Lights, but no luck.

To get to Many Glacier, you have to drive out of the park and then back into it. Many Glacier has stunning views, lakes, and, of course, incredible mountains. On the way in, we came around a curve, and a moose was standing in the middle of the road. I think he was as startled as we were. No time to get a photo as he ran into the woods. It was so cool to see since we had not really seen a moose yet. Made my day!

We were heading to Swiftcurrent Pass and the trailhead to Redrock Falls. It’s about a two-mile trek past Fishercap Lake, which we took the quick hike to from the Swiftcurrent Trail. One of the rangers at the St. Mary Visitor Center told us he saw a few moose there a few days ago, but we didn’t see any. Once back on the Swiftcurrent Trail, we continued our hike to the falls. You could hear the falls from the trail most of the time.

At one point, we saw people stopping on the trail looking up at the mountain. We stopped to ask, and they were observing Bighorn Sheep through binoculars. We got out ours and joined them. We saw about a dozen crossing a small valley. What a great sight to see. I didn’t notice any babies.

Another time, we saw a couple looking at the ground. They were looking at a ground squirrel who had grass in his mouth. He was frozen but moved every now and then, as if he wanted to cross the trail. I think we were in his way. He finally came onto the trial between Barry’s feet. He hit one of Barry’s heels and quickly ran back to his original place. We finally moved on so he could get on with his business.

We made it to the falls and sat and enjoyed them for a while until too many people entered the area. We decided to hike a little further and came to a spot of the river right before the water went over the falls. Beautiful area. The trail kept going for another five miles, but we headed back down.

On our way back, we saw a few people had stopped again, so we asked what they were observing, and it was a moose in the trees. I located it in the trees, and he was a big guy stripping the branches of their leaves. Hungry guy. We watched him for about thirty minutes as he moved through the trees and bushes. I was able to get a few good shots of him, but not many. I was amazed at how big he was, and you could hear the trees and bushes crack as he moved through them. I was happy to see a moose active in the forest, and it made my day.

Once back in the jeep, we decided to take a side trip to see the Many Glacier Hotel, built before 1915 and opened July 4^th, 1915. It is the oldest hotel in the park and beautiful. It has a Swiss-chalet feel, and even the bellhops wore lederhosen. Inside the hotel's lower level is a great room with huge wooden beams, made from very large tree trunks, running up four stories. The hotel was originally built by the Great Northern Railway to promote travel to Glacier as a destination. That would be a cool way to travel to the park.