Highway Logs: Glacier Park Hotel to Two Medicine Chalets

HIGHWAY LOG

GLACIER AND WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARKS

Glacier Park Hotel to Two Medicine Chalets

.0 GLACIER PARK HOTEL (4821) Capacity 300 guests.

.5 R N. P. S. ADMINISTRATION AND INFORMATION OFFICE

1.0 L SQUAW MOUNTAIN (7320) The mountain takes its name from the large squaw-shaped rock in the talus half-way up its face.

1.5 THE OLD NORTH TRAIL A famous old Indian trail which followed the eastern slope of the Rockies from Edmonton, Alberta, to Old Mexico. Upon close inspection, travois tracks and hoof prints can still be found along the route. The Old North Trail crossed the road at this point and is here easily traceable today. This trail is the title to the best popular book on the Blackfeet Indians, "The Old North Trail", by Walter McClintock.

2.6 TWO MEDICINE RIVER Flows through the Birch and Marias Rivers into the Missouri. Named for the two medicine lodges which were erected on opposite banks of the river.

4.2 TWO MEDICINE JUNCTION Junction of the Blackfeet Highway and Two Medicine Road.

4.7 L IRRIGATION DAM This irrigation project was started before Glacier National Park was established in 1910. The water is used on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

5.1 L LOWER TWO MEDICINE LAKE (4862) The forest fire in this valley occurred in 1919. It was started by a burning cigarette carelessly tossed by a member of a passing party.

7.3 L BOUNDARY OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK The trees have been cut out along the boundary line.

8.1 A RISING WOLF MOUNTAIN (9505) Named for Hugh Monroe, the first white man to visit much of the Glacier Park region. Monroe, a trader for the Hudson's Bay Company, lived for years with the Piegan Blackfeet and was given the name Rising Wolf because he arose on all fours when he awoke in the morning. He is thought to have first visited the park region in 1846.

8.3 TWO MEDICINE CHECKING STATION Cars entering into the park are checked and given entry permits by rangers. The fee for each car is one dollar, and is valid for the year. Such fee is charged because the park visitor driving his own car derives through use of the roads a service from the park beyond that supplied a visitor coming by other means.

8.7 L TWO MEDICINE RANGER STATION Occupied the year around by one of the nineteen permanent rangers of the park.

8.9 L SCENIC POINT (7505) This is the point of the mountain, a spur of Mt. Henry, on the opposite side of the valley.

9.9 R TRAIL TO TRICK FALLS (1/4 mile) This beautiful waterfall is over a ledge of Altyn limestone at the base of the Lewis Overthrust. It is panelled by the tall spires of fir and spruce with the brilliant red Rising Wolf Mountain forming a background. The walk from the road to the base of the fall is over a level, shady forest path and is easily made in ten minutes.

At times of high water, as in May or early June, the fall appears very regular and symmetrical; in mid-season the volume of water coming over the top has diminished to a small fraction of its culmination, but much pours forth from a cavernous opening which was hidden by the full flow. In late season, water no longer comes over the top, but all filters through fissures in the limestone to emerge from the cave. As water slowly dissolves the limestone, in the dim future this stream may have removed enough of the material so that it will no longer be possible for it to flow over the crest; and as it grades its bed, a natural bridge will be left to span its chasm.

TWO MEDICINE CREEK This stream unites with Cutbank Creek to form the Marias River, that, in turn, empties into the Missouri below Fort Benton.

11.8 JUNCTION TO CAMP GROUNDS

11.9 APPISTOKI CREEK Appistoki is Blackfeet for "Peeping over something".

12.0 TWO MEDICINE LAKE (5165)

MOUNTAINS (L. to R.) Scenic Point (7505); Appistoki Peak (8135); Never Laughs Mountain (7630); Grizzly Mountain (9070); Painted Tipi Peak (7600); Sinopah Mountain (8300)--Sinopah (Kit Fox) Woman was the Blackfeet wife of Rising Wolf; Lone Walker Mountain (8580); Mt. Helen (8540); Pumpelly Pillar (7600); Rising Wolf (9505).

TWO MEDICINE CHALETS (5165) Capacity 50 guests. On August 5, 1934, President Roosevelt had dinner in the large chalet on the lakeshore. He broadcast a "fireside chat" from the porch.