The area is overcast unfortunately so while the drive up to the park is impressive, I cannot imagine how much more impressive it might have been had it been a clear day. Much like the Tetons these imposing mountains just rise up out of the gentle rolling hills complete with some very nice lakes, valleys and overlooks. We approach the St Mary's entrance and I had pulled up the entry reservation, gotten out our annual pass and my ID, trying to get everything ready. As we pull up to where the ranger is supposed to check all of this, there is no one there. It is a little after 6:30 and the reservation system is supposed to start at 6. So glad that we stressed ourselves out getting that reservation when there's no one here to regulate it. We pull over to the welcome center hoping to find one of those little maps at least that they hand out with entry but the welcome center is closed as well and there is nothing outside to help us. I take some screen captures of the online map and we move on.
The first area of the park is St Mary's Lake which has some awesome views of the mountains and the little grasslands at the foot of them. Court and Gideon both are not a fan of the smell of some sort of plant growing in the area but we all enjoy the views all the same. At one point we park at a picnic area and head down to the lake for pictures and stumble across a couple with the man bathing in the lake. They appear to be pretty upset that we are in the area and by the time we wrap up our quick stop to take some pictures, the man has come out of the lake and is drying off. We pack back in the van to continue our drive and continue to stop at different pull offs with some great views. At one point there's a hiking path that follows a cascade up and down the hill from the pull off but the coolest part was the passage way under the roadway. Well, the cascades were awesome too. Gideon, Abby and I start feeling the need to go to the bathroom and there's a visitor center not too far ahead of us at Logan Pass. We decide to wait it out until we get there as it looks like it should be a sizable area.
When we arrive it's a freaking zoo there. We cannot find a place to park, people are being jerks about just driving through the parking lot and the pedestrians in the parking lot are acting entitled by just strolling down the middle of the driving lanes like nothing is going on. We decide to go in shifts so Gideon and I get out and head to the bathroom where there's a line. We finally wrap up and head back out to the parking area but cannot find Courtney. I keep hoping that she's just found a place to park but eventually we see her come up one of the aisles. I ask her to swap drivers but she has said that during the period that Gideon and I were relieving ourselves she has already had enough with this place and wants to leave. We offer Abby a chance to go but she says she doesn't want to anymore. Court has the great idea to go see if we can get a map from the ranger station that's here! I head off one more time to see if I can get a map. There is no one at the ranger station here. Not a soul. I decide that since there's a shop at the top part of the building, maybe someone will be there that could help. There is no one in the shop either! Completely empty handed I return to the van and we drive on.
As we continue, Abby's need becomes worse to the point that she attempts to limit her time standing up to look at the vistas and there are so many of them. Rivers flowing between the massive mountains, streams and waterfalls coming down the mountains, glaciers, what I think may have been a marmot coming down the side of one of the streams, all very awe-inspiring. We start looking more deperately for a restroom but since the maps that I took screenshots of were zoomed out, we can't see which of the coming areas have restrooms or not. Come to find out that they are few and far between heading east after Logan Pass. Eventually we drive past one but there's no parking in the area other than handicapped. Court pulls over and stops in the shuttle bus area to let Abby out to go and we all resume our decent at a much more relaxed pace. After leaving Logan Pass though we experience a lot heavier volume of people and stopping at pull outs becomes a lot harder than it had been earlier in the morning. This is partially because people are parking in them in such a manner that there are less available spots than should be. We reach the oppostie end visitor station and finally find rangers that we can ask questions to. We get a map and leave the park as it's not been as enjoyable as we had hoped after we started having to deal with more people.
As we leave the park we can see the back up for people trying to get in right now and are very glad that we decided to come early and come from the east. We attempt to stop at the Montana Vortex and House of Mystery only find that it's closed. I look up the website later in the evening and found that it indicates that they were open for the 2020 season! I'm thinking that they are gone permanently. Oh well, we head on to get some lunch at a A&W since most of the car has never been to one. We finally get there like twenty minutes later and find that that's closed permanently as well! What the heck is happening here? We go get some lunch at Taco Bell and call ahead to the hotel to get ourselves checked in early. As we arrive at the hotel, we see a ramen shop and instantly think dinner. After lunch we take a quick nap and go about our individual things. I go and capture some Munzees. Eventually dinner time rolls around. We attempt to go to the ramen joint only to see a big "Coming Soon" sign on the door. We decide to go to a local pizza and pub place but there is a HUGE line outside the door mulling about. Strike two. We see another place in the same area that doesn't have a line at least and attempt to eat there.
As we enter The Brass Tap we are told to seat ourselves but there are no clean tables available. We decide since we are the only people waiting and there are a good number of tables that only need bussing that we would wait it out. Court waits in the back of the back while I am up front with the kids watching for a table to get cleaned. Court gets one first and we sit down. There is some amazing food here which is nice since we have been having poor luck with dinner. Court even likes the beer that I ordered enough to trade it out with me for her pineapple cider! We head over to Coldstone for some dessert and back to the hotel for the evening.