Day 1 in Glacier National Park
Truthfully this page should be titled "First 1 and 1/2 days in Glacier" since we arrived in Kalispell, MT on 9/2/99 around 1pm. Well, it was supposed to be 1pm but yours truly had plane problems and arrived an hour and 1/2 late. But we rallied from that minor setback and decided to head first to the nearby town of Whitefish for some exploring and an early dinner.Whitefish turned out to be a very cute little town. During the winter months it serves as the gathering place for skiers from the Big Mountain ski area. Lots of cute little shops for souvenir purchases and a number of good restaurants.
We then stocked up on water and trail munches and made the 30 minute drive to West Glacier and our log cabin and hot tub. Suffice it say that after a day of travel the hot tub felt great! :-)
Now on to our first full day in the park. We left the cabin around 7:30am which was early enough to allow me to catch a sunrise.
We then headed for the park and a hearty breakfast at Eddie's located in Apgar Village. When you first turn into the park, you pass through parts of the town of West Glacier, before arriving at the park gates where the park entrance fee is collected. Apgar Village is actually just inside the west end of the park, down by Lake McDonald. There are a number of little shops in Apgar Village. The town of West Glacier also has some restaurants and gift shops. I recommend the West Glacier Restaurant as a good place to get a hearty breakfast and a hot and filling dinner. Just keep in mind that there is nothing fancy about these establishments, but the food is good.Most of the day was cloudy but the overcast skies didn't diminish the beauty of what we saw. We spent a short while down by the shores of Lake McDonald before heading out on our first hike.
The trail to Avalanche Lake is approximately 2.2 miles long to the bottom of the lake. It primarily takes you through the forest, with occasional glimpses of the mountains. However, the end destination is worth it. Avalanche Lake is a beautiful aqua colored lake surrounded on 3 sides by mountains and waterfalls. And here's a glimpse of us trying not to mess up the scenery too much! (left to right - Gary, Pam, Lori, Kim)
After breakfast we hiked the Cedar Lake Nature Trail and the Avalanche Lake Trail which are in the Lake McDonald area. The Cedar Lake trail is a very short boardwalk trail that hooks up with the Avalanche Lake Trail. I recommend taking it as it takes you past the very beautiful Avalanche Gorge before meeting with the Avalanche Lake trailhead.
But the best part of this trail was the black bear we met up with about 15 feet off the path! It was beautiful but luckily wanted nothing to do with us. Perhaps it was the sight of Lori waving her canister of bear spray that scared it off!
After surviving our bear scare, we decided to drive along the Going to the Sun Road as far as Logan's Pass. Of course we had to stop and take pictures along the way! 
By the time we reached Logan's Pass it had turned rainy, windy, and very chilly. Not the ideal conditions for a hike so we headed back towards Lake McDonald and souvenir shopping! After that, dinner in Whitefish again at a Mexican restaurant called Serrano's which turned out to be pretty good. There is also a really cute coffee shop located in a little white house towards the end of the main shopping street in Whitefish. Great fireplace and big cushy leather sofas and chairs to sit in and enjoy a cup of coffee. Leaving Whitefish we decided to check out the nearby Big Mountain Ski Area for possible future trips. It looked like it would offer some good skiing and housing opportunities. Finally, since we had started the day with a sunrise, it seemed only fitting to end it with a beautiful sunset. After that we headed back to West Glacier and the cabin.
