Lake McDonald Glacier National Park
Lake McDonald is the largest lake in Glacier National Park. As with all the other lakes in the park it's surrounded by mountains. It's the center of park activities in the western part of the park.
We stopped at the lake to view the sunset. We spent quite a bit of time standing on the beach enjoying the view.
Lake McDonald Lodge
We also found time to explore the Lake McDonald Lodge.
The lodge is listed in the National
Register of Historic Places--even though it was built in 1966. It looks like
it was designed and built at a much earlier date. It certainly fits in with
the rest of the lodges in Glacier. The interior is typical of lodges in the
western parks--a large lobby area with a fireplace and lots of animal heads. Gives
the impression of a hunting lodge.
Fish Creek Area
The Fish Creek area provides a somewhat different view of Lake McDonald than is offered by the area around the lodge. You look east across the lake toward the Going to the Sun Highway and the mountains. At the lodge you are looking more or less north at the mountains.
Fish Creek Campground and Picnic Area can be looked at as the last bit of civilization before the northwest part of the park. The paved road leads past the campground and out of the park to the road to Polebridge, Bowman Lake and the far northwest corner of Glacier. Or you can drive to Canada.
It is worth driving out of the park and up the road to Polebridge just to look back into the park from the western side. (You don't need to get off the paved portion of the road.) You get a very different look at the park and the mountains than from other areas of Glacier.