Sue De Lapa

Jammer Joe Kendall and his Red Bus

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Jammer Joe: Eighty-year-old “Jammer Joe” Kendall twirled his curlicue mustache, climbed into his sleek 1936 Red Bus, and began regaling passengers with stories about Glacier National Park. You sit back on the wide leather seats, gaze up through the open top at snow-clad, 10,000-foot peaks, then down at blue-green lakes, and listen to Joe tell about the early days of the park’s red bus fleet. An elite band of drivers had to jam the old manual transmissions into gear as the long buses ground up and down the mountains along the famed Going-to-the-Sun Road.

On the Beat

“They had girlfriends at every destination,” Joe recalled. But that era ended a decade ago when the vintage buses were modernized, and propane power and automatic transmissions installed. Then, Joe said, “All I was was a shiftless jammer.” But, he added, “It’s the best job in the park.”

This is the big sky country of Montana: powder blue skies, puffy white clouds, and rolling over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass, altitude 6,646 feet. (Closed in winter.) East Glacier is windier and cooler than the west side of the park. According to Jammer Joe a blast of wind in 2003 was so strong that it blew a train off a trestle. He pointed out a windbreak built since then.

Sue  De Lapa

Swiftcurrent Lake

But when Sue and I visited in late June, the park was calm and sunbathed as we spent two hours on horses, rounded a lake, and circled through Cracker Flats. We spotted fleecy mountain goats scrambling high up a rocky outcropping. Out in this country you’re also liable to spot bighorn sheep, elk, deer, moose, and, of course, grizzlies. We spotted warning signs installed by park officials: This is Bear Country. On a hike from Many Glacier Hotel, we came across dark splotches of bear scat, but saw no ursus arctos horribilis. We were told to talk and make noise as we hiked (bear bells are a no-no as they disturb fellow hikers). One man running on the trail who surprised a mama and cubs got a mauling recently but was able to run away, we heard.

One of our best days found us bouncing along the middle fork of the Flathead River in a yellow rubber raft, a white-water cruise where we passengers had to paddle through the rapids. Hardy, outdoor-loving people live up here and you’re encouraged to emerge from the red buses and do something. Our next do-something led us to kayak on ever-so-placid Whitefish Lake, at The Lodge at Whitefish Lake.

One of the favorite outings from Many Glacier Hotel is to hop one of the lake boats across Swiftcurrent Lake, then make the short walk to Josephine Lake and catch another boat. At the far end of the lake you can just stay aboard and ride back or do what most of us did, hike about a mile to Grinnell Lake. These waters are a lovely greenish shade because of the way the milky glacier runoff reflects the sky.

It’s true that there are far fewer glaciers here than there used to be. In 1850, folks counted about 150 dotting the park. Today only remnants of 26 remain. And due to continued global warming, experts estimate that even these will be gone by between 2020 and 2030.

Sue  De Lapa

On horseback

At the charming, progressive small town of Whitefish, we lucked into the weekly Tuesday afternoon farmers’ market, the best I’ve ever seen. A park is filled not only with produce but all manner of handicrafts and food booths. Folks from miles around make this a social, gossipy place. Kids in strollers, girls in gingham, strolling musicians. That night in Whitefish, on advice from locals, we found ourselves in an art-filled restaurant that looked for all the world like a New Orleans eatery. Tupelo Grille is the creation of Pat Carloss, formerly of Louisiana, and his wife Missy, from Memphis. This is classy dining with plenty of Big Easy flavors, as in the Cajun creole combo, which is a spicy mix of catfish, shrimp, and jambalaya. All my adult life I’ve been trying to find a bread pudding that matched my mother’s. Tupelo’s rum-flavored (my mom wouldn’t think of using booze) was superb but who can compete with a childhood memory?

Afterward, we moved over to the rambling, raucous Great Northern bar, a giant place full of young adults dancing to the loudest band I ever heard, drinking beer, and chatting up the opposite sex. Sue and I played pool, met new friends, watched the action and by 1:30 a.m. were ready to bed down at the nearby Downtown Flat three-bedroom inn. Down a few quiet small-town blocks is The Garden Wall Inn, a charming B&B where I’d like to stay if I ever make it back.

Other tempting eating we found in our travels: Baked Alaskan halibut at the Whitefish Lake Restaurant, which is located at the local golf club. Buffalo stroganoff--strips of buffalo cooked in mushrooms, onion, and red wine--at the Many Glacier Hotel. And buffalo meat loaf wrapped in hickory-smoked bacon, alongside garlic whipped potatoes, at the century-old Belton Chalet at the park’s west entrance.

We stopped off at some of the charming, rustic lodges that date to the early 1900s. One of the best is Lake McDonald Lodge, built circa 1914 and located on its namesake lake, largest in the park. Many Glacier Hotel, also built in 1914, is on the shore of Swiftcurrent Lake at the base of Mt. Grinnell. Glacier Park Lodge & Resort, dating to 1912, is nestled in East Glacier at the foot of Dancing Lady Mountain. (Website for all these hotels: www.glacierparkinc.com. Horses through Swan Mountain Outfitters. Rafting through Glacier Raft Company.)

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