Glacier National Park, Lake McDonald

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Lake McDonald Lodge, Glacier National Park
Tuesday September 1, 2009

On Tuesday Karen and I moved from the motel in Kalispell to the Lake McDonald Lodge that’s inside Glacier National Park. What an improvement this is over the roadside Econo Lodge. The McDonald Lodge is a small lakeside inn that was privately built here almost a hundred years ago. It’s now owned by the National Park and operated by a private vender. The building has been recently updated and is the nicest Inn we’ve stayed in at a National Park. Our first floor room is large, clean and has a nicely designed accessible bathroom. Food in the Inn’s restaurant is enjoyable and all the staff where very pleasant and helpful. This large lake has beautiful crystal clear water that allows you to see 40’ to the lake bottom at the end of the boat dock. The lake is filled with glacial melt so it has that it has a beautiful blue color created by the glacial silt. Standing on the dock you can see schools of large trout just swimming about. During the day we take an exciting ride to the top of the mountain pass on the “Road to the Sun” in one of the parks “Jammers”. A “Jammer” is a red touring bus that’s an original park feature from the 1930’s. These are White brand buses that have been used in the park for 70 years and recently restored by the Ford Motor Company to tour the park. It’s a really wonderful way to ride through the park.
Tuesday night we take a sunset cruise on the lake in a lovingly restored wooden boat again from the 1930’s. The vessel DeSmet was how early visitors to the McDonald Inn arrived before “The Road to The Sun” was built in the depression by the WPA. The main entrance of the Inn was built facing the lake and is how visitors originally arrived before the road. The mountain views at sunset from the boat are outstanding and a brief shower provides a lovely rainbow to make the ride complete.
Karen and I really enjoyed our stay at the McDonald Lodge. If you visit any of the National Parks it’s really worthwhile to stay in the park. It has been our experience that all the parks have a variety of accommodations at a range of prices that are competitive.

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