27 Aug 2022 - Many Glacier: Fishercap Lake and Redrock Lake Hikes

 27 Aug

We had a couple of great hikes today, the second one with a couple of great friends!  Doreen and I drove to the Many Glacier entrance to Glacier National Park which is a few miles north of where we are camping.  Once in the park we drove to the historic Swiftcurrent Motor Inn that we talked about a few days ago.  We quickly found parking and then made our way to the northwest corner of the park where we entered the Swiftcurrent Trailhead. 

This trail joins up with the Continental Divide Trail for a while until it branches off to Fishercap Lake (yellow below) and then the Swiftcurrent Trail continues on to Redrock Lake (green below)and beyond. 

So Doreen and I decided to hike to Fishercap Lake which is about 0.7 miles one-way and away we went.  The trail was busy with hikers and we even stopped and talked with a Park Ranger for a bit as he was changing the bear sign on the trail.  Apparently hikers were reporting the trail closed due to bear activity when it really was not.  The sign had been poorly worded which was causing confusion, so the Ranger changed it.  Bears and moose had been reported crossing and using the trail so he gave us some mentoring on how to avoid an encounter.

The weather was pretty good with some intermittent sun and overcast.  We walked over a couple streams which were filled with colorful rocks and sparkling water.

Just before we turned to head down to Fishercap Lake we passed an interestingly shaped tree.  One reference was like a camel's hump!  We wondered what had caused it to grow like this!

Soon we reached Fishercap Lake and the view was great.  Unfortunately we got there a bit late as earlier there are typically moose near the shore there.  There were a few other hikers there enjoying the view as well, and they offered to take our picture and we reciprocated.  My attempts at selfies are usually not very good, but I took one anyway!

Bear spray at the ready!

Just when the hiker snapped this picture we heard a voice from behind that said something like, "If you would have waited a bit we could have taken that picture!"  It was our Alliance friends Connie and Alicia!  It was great to see them again, but we surely did not expect to cross paths with them clear out here!  

They asked if they could hike with us about 1.3 miles (one way) further on to Redrock Lake and of course we really appreciated and enjoyed having some experienced hikers with us! So we headed back up to Swiftcurrent Trail and started towards Redrock Lake.  

The scenery continued to be awesome and the hiking trail continued to be busy with hikers.  It is a relatively easy hike, mostly flat and a little rocks but not bad.  Along the way Connie pointed out the ripened "thimbleberrys" and " huckleberrys" which is partially why there is so much bear activity right now.  They are busy stuffing themselves with many pounds of berrys, nuts and other food every day in preparation for the winter.  There are both grizzly bears and black bears here in this area along with elk, deer and moose.  We have not encountered a bear up close and personal yet but we posted a picture of one at a distance a day or so ago.

Huckleberrys - very tasty!

A bit hard to see but this is a huckleberry bush

A thimbleberry - tastes a bit like a strawbery, also very tasty!

We were headed down the trail and Doreen quickly spotted a brown creature just off the trail.  Turns out it was a deer which was the last thing she wanted or needed to see.  Several years ago Doreen had a terrible motor vehicle accident involving a deer and besides the severe physical trauma it caused her, it severely scarred her in other ways as well. She likely could have dealt with a moose or about anything else without issues, but this was really unfortunate. So we stopped and dealt with that until the critter meandered off into the forest. We offered to head back but Doreen insisted we press ahead.  She is a real trooper and I am so proud of her.

 Ahead we pressed and continued to take in the scenery being wary of our surroundings

Soon we arrived at Redrock Lake and the views were worth the hike!  In the distance we could see Redrock Falls and some other spectacular views of surrounding mountains,  

Doreen, Connie, Alicia and some other hikers at Redrock Lake

Our hike back to the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn  was very enjoyable and the weather continued to be nice.  We did not have any other critter encounters likely because the hikers continued to pour into the trail.  After ending the hike, we visited the gift shop. 

Doreen picked up what she thought was some huckleberry wine, but some labeling trickery resulted in a grape wine instead.  That's OK, we will enjoy it anyway!

After we said goodbye and thanking Connie and Alicia (and returning their bear spray!), we headed over to the historic Many Glacier Hotel.  This is the largest hotel in the park and was built by the Great Northern Railway in 1914-15, The hotel sits on the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake. The amenities include a Swiss Lounge, Heidi’s Snack Shop, the lakeside Ptarmigan Dining Room as well as a Gift Shop. Red Bus tours, boat cruises, horseback rides, evening ranger programs, and numerous other activities are available for visitors, not to mention the spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and lake.  

There were zero parking spots available, so this is as good as we could do as far as a picture goes.

The hotel was partially renovated in 2016 and contains 2 suites, 7 family rooms and 205 guest rooms.  If you are considering staying here, plan ahead - well ahead, as this is a very popular destination.  Also, be advised there are no televisions or air conditioning in the rooms!

We had planned to investigate the hotel and enjoy an glass of wine of the porch that overlooks the lake, but we will save that for next time as we depart for our next destination tomorrow.  We headed back to the RV and made a pit stop in the gift shop here where Doreen bought an actual bottle of huckleberry wine! 

We got back to the campground just in time to avoid an afternoon of rain.  Before it rained Doreen got some laundry done in the campground facility and I worked on our route for tomorrow down to Helena MT.

Well, that is about a wrap for our stay at Glacier National Park.  There is more we wanted to do, but we got quite a bit of hiking and sightseeing in.  The bonus was reconnecting with our Alliance friends Alicia and Connie,  and meeting our new friends Alliance friends Peter and Anne Macdonald!

Next report from Helena MT!  Thanks for joining us on our journey!