Glacier National Park 2021 – Day 6

Hey Guys!

This post continues our time in Glacier National Park.

We visited the park Sept. 4-11.

Click here to read about visiting the park in Sept.

The park required reservations to access the Sun Road this year. I’m sure this will be implemented again in 2022. Read here on how to get reservations.

Tip: You only need a reservation to enter the park from the Apgar (West Entrance), Camas Road and the St Mary (East) Entrances. No reservations are required to enter Many Glacier, Two Medicine, Polebridge & Cutbank….read here to see all of the entrances. Update: Effective 2023, reservations will be required for all areas of Glacier. Click here to read more.

Read Day 1 here, Day 2 here, Day 3 here, Day 4 here, Day 5 here ,Day 7 here & Day 8 here- Read my post on 101 Things to Do Outside of the Park, here – and to read my posts from last year on the West side of the park, click here.

Today we didn’t have a lot planned as we were still sore from hiking the Grinnell Glacier trail!

Once again, we started our morning relaxing and having coffee on our private balcony.

We never got tired of waking up to these incredible views!

We spotted a bald eagle while we were sitting on our balcony!

There are more than 260 species of birds found in the varied habitats of Glacier National Park.

We saw so much more wildlife on this trip than we did last year!

After our coffee, we decided to get ready and go have breakfast in the dining room.

On the way, we stopped to admire the incredible views from the hotel windows.

After ordering breakfast, we chose a table with a view of the lake.

We both ordered the bacon, egg & cheese bagel with hash browns. I was so glad they had gluten free bread.

See the menu to the restaurant here

Once again, we thought the food was really good.

After breakfast, I snapped a few pictures of the inside of the hotel.

I spotted this old barber’s chair and had to take a picture and send to my mom.

Her dad had been a barber for years and had a chair almost identical to this one and she still has it.

This old document I found online said the barber chair was manufactured by the Emil J Paidar company that was based out of Chicago…they had been making barber chairs since the early 1900’s.

We then decided to go outside and take a few pictures.

Here’s a picture of our balcony…if you look closely, you can spot me in the picture!

After taking a few more pictures in front of the lake, we decided to walk the short trail along the Swiftcurrent Lake.

Shots along the trail…

A shot of the hotel from the trail..

The trail is very flat and paved for most of the way…

The views along the trail are beautiful!

We came up on some cabins that appeared to be used for housing employees.

How awesome would it be to live here?!

Look at the views they have!

We continued our walk along the trail…taking our time and just enjoying the views.

A few minutes past the cabins, we came up on a wooden bridge that crossed a creek.

At this point, we decided to turn around and head back towards the hotel..

Shots along the way.

Arriving back to the hotel.

Unbeknownst to us, if we had continued along the trail, we would have arrived to Lake Josephine…it’s only 1.1 mi from the Many Glacier Hotel.

Lake Josephine is gorgeous so I highly recommend you continue along the trail!

Click here for a list of the best trails located in the Many Glacier area

More shots..

We spotted this beautiful white butterfly that had landed on some flowers so I just had to get a picture. 😉

Click here for complete list of butterflies & moths found in the park

After spending some time outside, we decided to go back inside the hotel and head to the gift shop to buy some souvenirs.

After doing some shopping, we decided we would hike to Redrock Falls.

Tip: Click here for 12 things to do in the Many Glacier area

The trailhead is located at the far end of the parking area for the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn at the end of Many Glacier Road.

The hike to the falls is approx. 4 miles round trip on a fairly flat trail. You will only gain around 100 ft in elevation on this hike.

Tip: I highly recommend having bear spray if you hike this trail as bears are frequently seen here

The trailhead to Redrock Falls is located on the same trailhead for Fishercap Lake.

Since moose are often spotted in Fishercap Lake, we made a quick stop to see if there were any in the lake.

Sadly, there were no moose in the lake so we continued our hike.

Thankfully, there was a lot of shade along the trail because it was hot!

On the way to the falls, you will pass Redrock Lake.

Moose are often spotted in this lake as well and as we were hiking along the lake, we spotted a mom and baby near the shore on the other side of the lake!

We stood and watched them for several minutes….so cool!

The views along the trail are beautiful!

You’ll have gorgeous views of Mt. Grinnell and Swiftcurrent Glacier towards the southwest, and 8436-foot Swiftcurrent Mountain almost directly towards the west.

If you look closely you may be able to spot the fire tower atop Swiftcurrent Mountain.

As we were walking along the trail, we spotted a little chipmunk eating snowberries.

After walking for 2 miles, we finally arrived to the falls.

Now I know why they call it Redrock!

Redrock Falls is actually a series of cascades.  Upon arrival at the lower falls you’ll notice several small side trails that lead to various vantage points that offer views of the lower and upper falls.

It’s well worth the effort to make the relatively easy scramble, if you’re looking for some great photographic opportunities.

Tip: If you continue up the trail for a short distance, you will be able to get a picture of both the upper & lower falls together

Tip: You can continue along this trail for another 1.5 miles to Bullhead Lake

After spending a few minutes at the falls, we headed back.

The views were truly spectacular!

On the way back, we spotted several grouse crossing the trail!

They were not fearful of us at all and we got very close to them!

Click here to see other birds that can be spotted in the park

As I have mentioned before, we visited the park Sept. 4-11 and the leaves had started to change…it made the hike even more beautiful!

We checked again for moose as we were passing Fishercap Lake…no moose!

After finishing our hike, we headed back to our room at the Many Glacier Hotel.

Tip: Click here to see the hikes in the Many Glacier area

We arrived just in time to witness another awesome sunset!

We headed straight to the Ptarmigan Dining Room to have dinner.

We chose a table next to the water so we could watch the sunset!

I ordered the salmon with brown rice and a salad and the hubby ordered the roast beef with mashed potatoes and a salad.

See their dinner menu here

The food was very good!

After dinner, we headed to our room to enjoy the views from our balcony.

Later that evening, we called it a night!

Thanks for reading!

Tip: Glacier National Park is a dark sky park so you will definitely want to stay up late and watch the sky for shooting stars, the milky way and even the Northern Lights!