The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Last weekend I went to Lake McDonald and Glacier National Park for the first time this season.

It was wonderful.

I participated in the first log ceremony at Lake McDonald Lodge where on the day the Lodge opens, a crowd gathers and the first fire in the huge fireplace is lit for the season.

In addition I answered lots of questions in a question and answer session with new Red Bus Drivers.

But best of all I just looked and looked and looked. Oh how I had missed those wonderful mountains that form the top part of Lake McDonald. Just naming them brings warmth to me. Gunsight, Edwards, Brown, Cannon, Little Matterhorn, Reynolds, the Garden Wall and way over in the Swift Current Valley is wonderful old Mount Wilbur.

When at Lake McDonald I try to stay at the Village Lodge at Apgar. I stay in cabin six which is right on the point of where McDonald Creek spills out of Lake McDonald. The view is out of this world.

I bring a golden oldie book to read and sip a brandy or two while sitting on a comfortable old sofa right in front of a picture window looking up the lake. It is then that I know I am really living.

Thoreau said it best when, to paraphrase him, he said that when he died, he wanted to know that he had really lived. It is when I am at Lake McDonald surrounded by those wonderful old mountains that I know I am really alive and I love it.

This summer, if you are traveling around Glacier, do not miss the Many Glacier Hotel in the beautiful Swift Current Valley. It is just great to see what has been done to restore that magnificent building to its former glory. A couple of years ago, the false ceiling was taken down from the huge dining room and the fireplace was made operable. So now you can sit by the fire for your breakfast, lunch or dinner and look up at the wonderful raftered ceiling that the hotel was made with in the first place.

In the lobby, workers are working round the clock to install a double stairway going from the lobby level to the restaurant in the lower level. This stairway was removed years ago to make room for an expanded gift shop. The middle of the stairway will be a waterfall and many green plants. It should be just beautiful and one more return to the hotel’s former glory. This project will not be completed until mid July so if you want to see the finished product, go to Many after that.

Meanwhile, if you want to enrich your life, get to most any part of Glacier and begin to really live!