Glacier National Park, Day Three: An Autumnal Beauty Display:
Day Three: October 28, 2020 Going to Polebridge and then West Glacier to Avalanche Lake
After another good IHOP breakfast, Doug and I left Kalispell at about 10:15 AM, heading north for the small community of Polebridge, Montana. This waypoint on the way to Canada, a mere twenty-two miles from the border, has a population of less than 200 Rocky Mountain hearty souls. Polebridge is known for two things. They are completely off the electrical grid; there is no electricity except that provided by diesel generators as they rely on solar panels for much of their energy. And Polebridge is known round the world for the famous huckleberry bear claws served at the Polebridge Mercantile. I have had them. They are messy, but outstanding. No visit to this out-of-the-way gem, in the Rockies, would be complete if you haven’t sampled the locally-made pastries.
Polebridge, in and of itself, is not the sole reason for traversing the North Fork Road, so named because it follows the North Fork of the Flathead River for much of its way. Less than half a mile north of Polebridge is a side road to Bowman Lake. It is just over seven miles to this small out-of-the-way pocket of beauty in the northern Rocky Mountains of the United States of America. But it is a rough trip. Googlemaps lists the journey as taking 31 minutes to travel the 7.2 miles to the Bowman Lake Campground. That’s roughly 15 mph. And most pundits will say you should use an all-terrain vehicle, I have seen people on Facebook, however, that said they drove in a standard automobile. Everyone said the drive is do-able in a regular car, just go slow. Kintla Lake is even further, at 15.7 miles. But Googlemaps projects a 41-minute drive to cover that distance so that is about 25 mph. I have never been to either of these Rocky Mountain landmarks, but my brother has seen Kintla Lake and highly recommends it. When we visited, though, it was too late in the season as the snow-covered roads were difficult enough just going to Polebridge. The roads to Bowman and Kintla lakes were closed. There will be another time.
From Kalispell, we took US Highway 2 E to Columbia Falls where we picked up Montana State Route 486 N. From there, it is about thirty-six miles to Polebridge. On a good day, the mountains of western Glacier National Park would loom large in the near distance, providing great panoramic views. On this day, however, relatively low cloud cover obscured the tops of the mountains. But plenty of aspens and cottonwoods were observed along the first few miles of Montana State Route 486, which becomes the Outer North Fork Road.
The larch, or as locals might call them, tamarack, began to pop up by mile marker 6 along the highway. The road was lined between mile markers 10 and 11. The trip meter was reading thirty-one and a half miles when the pavement ended. From this point on, the road was snow-covered and icy. There was a U.S Border Patrol officer parked on the side of the road, so we stopped and asked if it was safe to continue to Polebridge. He said to go slow and we should have no problem. So, we continued heading north. I’ll let Doug’s notes cover it from here.
“The area that demarcates the end of pavement and beginning of gravel has clearly been subjected to fire. Young larch trees are repopulating areas where the skeletal trunks of fire-scorched conifers still stand. On a 10-point scale, color progression is again, typically in the range of 6-7: lime green, pale yellow, and near peak shades of yellow are interspersed. Progressing northward toward Polebridge and past the burned area, the North Fork Road, is framed by tall, stately larch. Bob got several images there, where the road visually leads you into the snow-shrouded mountains.”
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After traveling for about nine miles, we reached the Big Creek Campground, inside the Flathead National Forest. Here, too, the North Fork Road is surrounded by ample evidence of young larch repopulating old-growth burned areas. The Camas Road intersection with the Outer North Fork Road is just a few miles north of the campground. From this point, Columbia Falls is 22 miles south, and the Canadian border is 34 miles north. Polebridge, our destination, was just 13 miles north.
I made a mistake in trying to get this shot. It was almost a “final” mistake, or at least a very painful one. Or, it could have been for Doug. But the good Lord was looking out for me. Actually, God was watching out for me on more than one occasion last October. I thought I had lost the lens cap to my camera, twice, while in the Wind River Range, but the Lord blessed me. Doug found the cap in the car the first time I misplaced it, and later, I found it in my hat which I had put back on my head while hiking around the Green River Lakes area. As I was navigating my way around a deadfall, my ball cap fell off. In the process, the lens cap came off and fell in the hat, but I did not notice it was missing until much later. I went back over that entire path but couldn’t find the cap, so I was convinced I had lost it. When I took my cap off at the parking lot, however, the lens cap fell out.
On this day, however, I was almost run over by my own car. Here’s how it happened. I saw that view ahead, and thought it would make a nice picture. As you can see by the next couple of shots, I was right. It looked like we were on a straight, and more importantly, level stretch of road so I put the vehicle in “park” and put the parking break on. As soon as I stepped out of the car, though, it started moving. I tried to grab the door and stop the car from moving, but I was wearing some older sneakers and I could not get traction. Fortunately, I did what I always do, and that was turn the wheel all the way to the inside, or in this case, left. At the last second I realized that I would get run over if I did not get out of the way. It rolled into a ditch, but fortunately, it was only about a foot deep. Doug, who had been in the passenger seat taking notes, got out and with his pushing the vehicle, while I put it in reverse, we were able to return it to the road and continue our journey. I thanked the Lord profusely as it could most definitely have taken a much deadlier turn if I had not gotten out of the way. Or even worse, if I had not thought (and I can only thank the good Lord for this) to turn the wheel all the way to the left. As you can see from the above picture, Doug would have been in serious peril if the car had been allowed to move, unchecked straight ahead. To this day, I credit the Lord for looking out for us.
A little less than three miles from Polebridge, we came upon “A Little Piece of Heaven” a nice retreat off the beaten path. From their homepage at www.LittlePieceOfHeaven.org, this is what they had to say:
“A Little Peace of Heaven” is a beautiful retreat located on 40 acres near the small town of Polebridge, Montana. The retreat sits atop a grand ridge that overlooks the beautiful North Fork Flathead River and the lofty mountains of Glacier National Park. Accommodations include 4 guest cabins that can be rented on a daily basis.”
“The retreat is designed as a quiet, distraction-free Christian hideaway where one can take time to recharge their spiritual batteries as well as a place to explore God’s second book—nature. Please check out the other pages on this site for additional information about the wonders to be found at “A Little Peace of Heaven” retreat.”
The trip meter was sitting on 56.2 miles when we pulled into the Polebridge Mercantile & Bakery parking lot. The odometer, at this point read 171,860. It was the farthest north we drove on this trip, although technically we went a little closer to the Canadian border, the following day when we traveled to Eureka, Montana along the Lake Koocanusa Scenic Byway. As I previously stated, you have to try the world-famous huckleberry pastries from this back-waters gem along the North Fork of the Flathead. After using their “outdoor” bathroom, which was very nice and well kept, Doug and I purchased huckleberry bear claws and a cup of coffee. Despite having no electricity, the store has always been warm and cozy each time I visited. And it has been in the fall, either late September, or in this case, late October when we stopped at the mercantile. This charming establishment first opened its doors in 1914, a mere four years after Glacier became a national park. A man named Bill Adair settled here and built the small store. Now, a Kalispell native, Will Hammerquist owns the Mercantile. In addition to the general store, Polebridge has a café/saloon named the Northern Lights Saloon, cabins for rent and even a hostel named the North Fork Hostel & Square Peg Ranch. The Polebridge Mercantile was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
We left Polebridge at 2:06 PM and headed south. From Polebridge, the Canadian border is 22 miles north, while it is 35 miles back to Columbia Falls. But we would not be returning by way of Columbia Falls. It is a little over thirteen miles from Polebridge back to the Camas Road junction. From the junction, the Camas Creek Entrance to Glacier National Park is just half a mile. This is one of only seven entrances into this famed national park. The other two, on the west side, are West Glacier and Polebridge. There are four entrances on the eastern side; they are Saint Mary, Cut Bank, Two Medicine and Many Glacier. Although, technically, the Chief Mountain International Highway cuts across the northeastern corner on its way to Canada.
The trip meter was showing exactly 70.0 miles, since we left the IHOP in Kalispell some four hours earlier, when we entered Glacier National Park. On the whole, the larch along the Camas Road were not as thick as those along the North Fork area, but there was still some nice color. And there was a particularly large concentration of larch near the eastern terminus of the Camas Road.
I took many photographs from the Camas Road bridge that crosses McDonald Creek. Looking up McDonald Creek from that vantage point, the mountain slope visible in the immediate background is absolutely carpeted with larch. But it was not the best weather conditions for photography. It was a foggy afternoon, and there was a light drizzle. However, the larch was, to quote Doug, “in their autumnal finery were visibly reflected in McDonald Creek.”
It took about half an hour to reach the Apgar Visitor Center, and from there it was around a quarter of a mile to the famed Going-to-the-Sun Highway. Larch are faintly visible, given the foggy conditions and light drizzle, on the hillsides along the west shore of Lake McDonald. It was right at fifteen miles from Apgar to the Avalanche Creek trailhead parking area. This is the point where the road was closed, for the winter, from the west side of Glacier National Park. With the fog setting in, and the weather rapidly deteriorating, there was no reason to dally in the park. It was sixteen miles back to West Glacier and another fifteen miles to Columbia Falls via US-2. From here, I’ll let Doug’s notes take over:
*** General observations on fall-foliage conditions that are characteristic of the Going-to-the-Sun Road from West Glacier to Avalanche Creek: This area affords decent fall-foliage viewing opportunities in terms of cottonwoods and aspens. With the exception of the first half-mile (or so) of the Going-to-the-Sun Road and the approach route from West Glacier to park entrance stations, virtually no larches are visible in direct proximity to this route. However, several really nice specimens of larch are visible near the Apgar visitor center. Additionally, an abundance of larch is visible from the bridge over the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, which is virtually adjacent to the western entrance sign to Glacier National Park. ***
Columbia Falls is 15 miles from West Glacier. Although they are not highly concentrated in individual stands, tall, stately larch trees most definitely accentuate US Highway 2 from West Glacier to Hungry Horse. On our way back to our motel room, we stopped at an Applebee’s Restaurant, in Evergreen, for dinner. Then it was time for bed. We knew it would be a long day, on the 29th of October.
