An Awesome Day

It was 38 degrees when we woke up. It was misting and sleeting. Gloves, coats, hats, binoculars & camera. Let's go.

We drove to East Glacier Lodge in hopes of getting on the 10 am tour - a 2 hour preview of the park.

When we arrived we found that the 9am tour was slightly delayed and they had 3 open seats. We quickly signed up and soon boarded a Red Bus. This tour was 8 1/2 hours and we saw all of the east side of the park including the Going To the Sun Road (8 miles was open). We had stops at the Two Medicine General Store, St. Mary's Lodge and Many Glaciers Lodge.

Our 'Jammer' (Red Bus driver, because they used to jam gears to climb the mountains) was Joe, a retired farmer from southwestern Illinois. He was a great guide. He had worked two summers at Glacier when he was in college. This is his 12th summer working in Glacier since retirement. He has driven a Red Bus for 11 of those years.

Walt loves these buses and was so excited to spend the whole day on one.

We didn't see much wildlife -- a marmot, 2 deer and a moose.








Take a look at the last photo. We did see a bear and I even got a bear hug. Jammer Joe donned a bear suit so we could all say that we saw a bear.

It was truly an awesome day.