Glacier National Park 2021: God’s Autumnal Extravaganza! Day Five

Day 5: Friday, 10/1/2021

We are all big fans of IHOP. And fortunately for us, there is an IHOP in Kalispell, and it is basically on the way to our destination for the fifth day of our 2021 fall foliage journey. On this day, our intentions were to take a trip north up the North Fork Road, to Polebridge and then beyond to Kintla Lake and perhaps Bowman Lake. There just wasn’t time, however, to visit both of those scenic spots on this day, so Bowman Lake will have to wait for another time.

Though the tripmeter was only sitting on 89.3 miles, we did not want to go off into the wild blue yonder with anything less than a full tank of gas, so I filled up in Kalispell and reset the tripmeter. After a very nice and satisfying breakfast of pancakes and other delicious delicacies, such as bacon, eggs, and hash browns, we hit the road.

I’m not sure exactly what time we left Kalispell, but we exited the parking lot of the Motel 6, which is in the southern portion of that city, and enjoyed our breakfast at the IHOP, on the northern outskirts of town, so I will make an educated guess of somewhere between 8:00 and 8:15 AM. I’ll let Doug’ notes take it from here: “Tripmeter reading: 4.6. IHOP location. After a scrumptious IHOP breakfast, we hit the road again, bound for Polebridge and the North Fork via US Hwy 93 North to East Reserve Drive, and then US Hwy 2 to Columbia Falls and MT 486, which technically is the Outer North Fork Road.”

This would be a long day, one that would be very fruitful as I took over 500 photos. It was about fifteen miles before we reached Montana State Highway 486, otherwise known as the North Fork Road. Just two miles north of Columbia Falls the aspens began to “Prominently accentuate the corridor traversed by this highway.” Doug said that “According to Google Maps, it should be 35.8 miles from the junction of US 2 and MT 486 to Polebridge.”

After about thirteen miles, the pavement ended on the (Outer) North Fork Road, and we began to enter burned areas that are being repopulated with young western larch trees. When we were here in 2020, the larch were looking very nice, but in various stages of the fall-foliage process. This year, however, it was much too soon for larch to be turning colors. This demarcation point is located at or near mile marker 12.

We came to the Great Northern Flats after about four-and-a-half miles. There was a small bathroom, on the right side for north-bound travelers. When you are away from civilization, it is always a good thing to know where restrooms are located. Big Creek Campground, located within the Flathead National Forest, was just 3.2 miles further. The tripmeter was reading 40.4 miles at the Big Creek Campground. The campground was located on the right, for north-bound travelers, while the Big Creek Outdoor Education Center was on the left. And, predictably, bathrooms, an all-important consideration for backcountry travelers, are available at the Big Creek Campground.

We came to a nice photographic opportunity about three quarters of a mile past the Big Creek Campground where there is a bend in the North Fork of the Flathead River. There was an impressive stand of aspens and/or cottonwoods on the right side  of the road “(as defined for  northbound travelers), the “V” formed by the visual convergence of mountain slopes beyond the river’s bend, and a mountain looming more distantly beyond the aforementioned “V.” These mountains serve, respectively, as intermediate- and distantly-tiered compositional elements.”

Another mile-and-a-half brought us to an even more impressive vantage point. I’ll let Doug explain it, “A similar and, perhaps, more impressive composition is visible here, one featuring an S-shaped curve in the North Fork of the Flathead, impressive stands of aspens interspersed with cottonwoods on both shores of the river, and several mountains, rather than a single peak, looming on the horizon.”

About half a mile later, we came to a spur road to the right, that leads to the bridge over the North Fork of the Flathead and leads to the Camas Creek Road. I’ll let Doug do the explaining of what we have seen so far: “General observations pertaining to the Outer North Fork Road from Columbia Falls to its junction with the Camas Creek Road: Predictably, the riparian corridor traversed by the North Fork of the Flathead features pretty, but not continuous, stands of cottonwoods, interspersed with aspens, which, at peak color, form brilliant ribbons of yellow juxtaposed against the dark green of neighboring conifers.”

The tripmeter was at 43.3 miles when we came to the Camas Creek Road. We had been traveling over a gravel road for ten miles. This was much easier than it had been the year before when we had to deal with ice and snow. Pavement resumed a little over seven miles later and ended with the tripmeter reading 55.4 miles, a distance of almost five-and-a-half miles. For the last two-and-a-half miles tall cottonwoods and aspens border and, at peak color, frequently accentuate the North Fork Road. The Home Ranch Bottoms Store was located on the left side of the road at tripmeter reading 52.2 and Little Peace of Heaven Cabin Rentals was at the 54.5 mark.

The pavement ended, once again, at the 55.4 mark of our tripmeter. One mile later brought us to the junction with the road to Polebridge. It’s a short two-tenths of a mile, from the North Fork Road to the Polebridge Mercantile. Or I should say the “world-famous” Polebridge Mercantile. People from all corners come to sample some of their delicious home-made huckleberry bear claws. I know every time I stop there, I buy one. But make sure to get plenty of napkins. You’re gonna need them! The odometer was sitting on 175,696, so we had driven fifty-six miles from the Kalispell Motel 6.

The road splits at the Mercantile. If you go south, it will take you to the North Fork Hostel along what Google Maps calls Polebridge Lane. The northern route, called Glacier Drive, takes you up to the Polebridge Ranger Station and beyond that Bowman and Kintla Lakes. From Doug’s research, both of these are prime fall-foliage destinations. The ranger station, only a couple hundred feet after crossing the North Fork of the Flathead River, is about one-and-half miles from Polebridge. The tripmeter was reading right at 58.0 miles when we passed the station, which was closed. I got some nice shots of cottonwood and aspen stands by looking upstream from the bridge. After passing the ranger station we entered the Inside North Fork Road, which is closed during the winter. The Inside North Fork Road, which becomes the Kintla Lake Road, is 15.7 miles of winding, curving, gravel road. It’s not really that bad, except for one stretch as you near the lake, but it is a hard drive. Google Maps projects thirty-nine minutes to cover this distance so that works out to about 30 mph. I doubt I even reached that speed anywhere along the drive. But that’s okay, because this drive, as the entire trip, was to see the sights, not pass them.

The tripmeter read 58.4 miles when we passed the spur road to Bowman Lake. Though I was hoping to see both lakes, there just wasn’t enough time. Kintla Lake is a lot further from Polebridge, and Doug and Steve had been there before, so we made the decision to continue north and stop at Bowman on the way back if time permitted.

Although I don’t believe the color of the fall foliage was quite as impressive as in other parts of Glacier, this drive was still well worth the effort. Big Prairie, a sagebrush flat, was two miles north  (tripmeter reading 60.3), on the Inside North Fork Road, from the ranger station. There were several places that I pulled over and took photos along this stretch of ‘gravel’ road. Doug took very careful notes. I’ll let him take it from here: “Tripmeter reading: 61.2. Bob took several photographs at this point of the Livingston Range, which towers beyond the conifers at the eastern edge of Big Prairie, ‘a sagebrush flat completely surrounded by lodgepole pines and aspens’ (page 31 of Roads and Trails of Waterton-Glacier National Parks by George C. Ruhle [1972]).”

As we traversed the area known as Big Prairie, we saw small pockets of aspens along the western edge that exhibited impressive color. And to the right, of course, we had some excellent views of the Livingston Mountains.

As we moved further north, we spotted a pocket of aspens near the road. As Doug said, “a very impressive pocket of tall aspens at peak color was prominently located next to the North Fork Road.”

After traveling about half a mile, we came to an impressive group of aspens and perhaps cottonwoods, too, at a bend in the North Fork of the Flathead River. At this point there was a sharp turn, or as Doug would describe it, “an east-to-west elbow in the North Fork of the Flathead” where the water flowed in an easterly direction rather than north to south.

Seven miles later, we crossed over Kintla Creek, and two miles further brought us to the Boulder Pass Trailhead Parking Area. A third of a mile later saw us, once again, gazing upon the Livingston Mountains, this time from the shores of Kintla Lake. The tripmeter read 72.6 miles as we pulled up the the Kintla Lake Campground.

As we prepared to leave Kintla Lake, I’ll let Doug’s notes do the talking:” Comments on timber lining the shores and mountain slopes surrounding Kintla Lake: There are a few aspens at peak color scattered along the lakeshore. However, most of the conifers on higher mountain slopes are a distinctly lighter shade of green than their shoreline counterparts. Conifers in the former group are approaching that lime-green phase of color progression, an indicator in my opinion that many, if not most, of those trees are western larches. The higher slopes on the mountain to the right of Kintla Lake are dotted extensively with the yellow foliage of, presumably, aspens.”

Heading north, I took some photos of this group on the way to Kintla Lake, but I did not realized how extensive it was until we returned. I thought that stand was just a few trees. Seeing them from the north, looking south, however made me realize this was a very nice scene. And viewing the Livingston Mountains in the background with just the right amount of clouds to break up the clear blue sky made for a really nice photograph. According to the tripmeter we had traveled 83.0 miles since leaving Kalispell in the morning, and it was 10.4 miles from Kintla Lake Campground. As Doug described the scene, it was a “beautiful island of aspens in Big Prairie, one approaching peak color, which clearly were quaking in the wind.”

As our day along the North Fork Fork of the Flathead River wound down, I will let Doug’s notes describe what we viewed on our northerly journey into the wild backcountry of Glacier National Park: “General impressions of fall foliage in the North Fork area: Best known for its spectacular larch display, which typically exhibits peak color in late October, the North Fork actually hosts two separate fall-foliage seasons. Like their counterparts on the east side of Glacier, aspens and cottonwoods in the North Fork usually don their brightest autumnal cloaks of yellow and orange during the last week of September and first week of October. However, North Fork aspens attain far more impressive stature than their east-side cousins, due to generally less severe weather conditions and the absence of harsh winds that regularly buffet aspens in the Rocky Mountain Front and east side of Glacier. Individual aspen stands in the North Fork certainly do not rival the vast ocean of aspens at the base of Chief Mountain, but they are more common in the North Fork than is generally recognized. Predictably, the riparian corridor of the North Fork of the Flathead is most heavily accentuated by impressive aspen-cottonwood stands.”

As it was really too late, during our drive along the Camas Creek Road into West Glacier, I did not take any photographs. Even the ones I took as we were coming down the North Fork Road from Kintla Lake were very iffy, so I deleted them. But, as a whole, this was a great day, with perfect weather, for fall-foliage peepers. I will let Doug finish out this page with his comments: “Impressions of fall foliage in the Camas Creek area: Our late transit of this park sector of the park precluded the opportunity to extensively photograph fall foliage from the Camas Creek Road. Nevertheless, impressive views of fall foliage up and down the North Fork of the Flathead were clearly visible from the bridge that crosses that stream and provides access to the Camas Creek Road.”