We got off to a late start today, Sharon was feeling a bit dizzy when she woke up this morning. We decided we would go into Saint Mary to have breakfast at The Park Café. This is a very popular place and at 9:30 a.m. already had quite a few people waiting outside for a table to become available. We discovered that most of the people waiting were in groups of three or more people. Since there was just the two of us we were fortunate and only had to wait for about fifteen minutes for a table to become available.
The food was excellent with a friendly, attentive wait staff that make you feel right at home. This restaurant is also popular for it’s homemade pies. You can order a whole pie to take home with a 24-hour advance notice.
When we were seated at our table, the hostess provided us with a napkin and a fork. Our waiter was a friendly young fellow with a very nice dry sense of humor. He was probably in his late twenties or early thirties. His dress attire looked like he had just come in from a morning hike in the mountains. The wait staff are a really friendly, laid back group, with no apparent dress code requirement. It certainly fit in well with the ambience here.
Our waiter took our order and then brought us our coffee. We still only had a fork and a napkin in our possession! I told him we needed spoons and also a knife. He replied: "Right!" Within a minute or two the spoons arrived. He placed a spoon by Sharon and then proceeded to explain the condition of my spoon to me. The spoon had a brown speckled appearance to it and he assured me it had been washed. He went on to explain the kitchen was backed up getting the eating utensils washed, due to the busy morning breakfast rush. I accepted the spoon with a promise from him we would get the next batch of knives coming off of the washing line! It was a delightful dining experience overall.
A novel feature at this restaurant is the location of the restrooms. They are located in a separate building behind the restaurant. A large chalkboard sign inside the restaurant directs customers to these outside accommodations.
Sharon was feeling better after breakfast, so we decided to explore various locations on the east side of Glacier National Park. We would start our days adventure at Logan Pass, arriving there at 2:00 p.m. We scanned the mountains with our binoculars and discovered four Big Horn Sheep resting in a clearing high up on the side of a mountain. The area they were in was covered with rock and massive boulders, there was no vegetation anywhere. On another side of the same mountain were two Bighorn Sheep grazing in a grass and tree covered area. The size of the curved horns on these sheep were quite large. It is quite interesting to see how they easily traversed through the loose rocky terrain they were in.
Our next stop brought us to a breathtaking view of a mountain valley many thousands of feet below us. High above the valley floor, water from melting snowpack on the surrounding mountaintops carved winding paths down the sides of the mountains. At several locations, brilliant waterfalls were created that cascaded hundreds of feet down the mountain, ultimately emptying into streams that fished their way through the lush green vegetation in the valley below.
We had a late lunch at about 4:00 p.m. at a charming spot along side of a creek. The large rocks in the creek bed created small rapids from the rush of the water over them. Thousand of feet above us we could see the genesis of the water from a melting snow pack. It was such a serene moment, just the two of us, alone at this scenic area to enjoy the wonders of nature.
We arrived back at the Saint Mary Campground around 6:00 p.m. and settled down outside in our reclining chairs with a nice glass of wine accompanied with cheese and crackers to view the sun setting over the mountain peaks. A fine ending to another wonderful day at Glacier National Park.
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