Today we decided to explore the south end of the park, Two Medicine. We planned on hiking a trail to see some moose. A ranger at the St. Mary visitor center told us about it.
The drive from St. Mary is about an hour. Highway 49 is closed, so we had to take the long way around, which was a beautiful drive. It was further in miles but not in time. The road takes you out of the park, then back in. At one point, a deer almost ran in front of us, but it did a hairpin turn and ran back up the mountain. Scared the heck out of us.
We stopped at the ranger station, and it had passport stamps. The stamp is really worn. You can see the date, but not the words. Talk about a bummer. I can find a stamp online, print it, and that will work. The ranger told us they have to order a new one, but this part of the park is closing early in September. There is quite a bit of maintenance they will be doing, mainly road work. She said they are called the “step-child of Glacier NP.” I have to say this part of the park is gorgeous. As we are standing there talking to her, it started to snow, and the wind picked up. Well....that was unexpected and changed our plans for the day. What to do now? We found a nice picnic area with a beautiful view of Two Medicine Lake, parked the car, and ate our lunch...INSIDE the jeep. It continued to snow, rain, and hail the rest of the time we were in that area. You couldn’t see the mountains, but you could see the lower part.
After lunch, we drove over to the store and bought a few things: a t-shirt, a clearance vest (gotta love that), and stickers for my passport books. They have a small food bar in the back of the store. Some of the sandwiches looked really good. They also have coffee and lattes, hot chocolate, and not even a mocha. Oh, but they have one of those cappuccino do-it-yourself machines.
As we were leaving, we drove to the Running Eagle Falls. This was a very short hike, .6 miles round trip, the ranger told us about at the ranger station. The weather right above us cleared, and we decided to chance it since the trail was short. What a great short walk. We did see moose droppings a few times. You can hear the falls the entire time. These falls are beautiful as they flow into the river. We walked up the river a ways just to get another view for more photos, then, darn it, it started to snow again. Back to the car for warmth. The wind was freezing. At least we got to see this end of the park. Very sad we did not get to do the hike we wanted. Mother Nature is going to do what she wants.
An area you pass at this end of the park is the Blackfeet Bison Research Ranch. Click on the link to read an interesting story of bringing the bison back to the area. A ranger at the St. Mary Visitor Center informed us that the Blackfeet Nation bought some descendants from the original bison herd that roamed the park from Canada. They want to bring Bison back into the park. They have been breeding them for years now and are close to releasing them into the park. How cool will that be? I hope they are successful. Nothing is more majestic than seeing bison roaming our National Parks.
On the way back, we stopped at the Kyiyo Market. It’s at the 49 and 89 junction. Kyiyo means bear in Blackfeet. We bought a loaf of Huckleberry bread and a loaf of regular bread. The Huckleberry sounds good as toast for breakfast.
The drive was in horrendous winds again, and we were so happy to get back to our campsite and hole up for the evening.
Copyright © 2026 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.
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