Glacier -- Camping at Two Medicine

One of the ways I convinced Erik to take us to Glacier this past week was because of the campground at Two Medicine. He hated camping at Fish Creek, so I told him he'd probably like the East side better. It's a bit more rustic, less crowded and I knew the campground was wooded and near the lake. 

View from our campsite

I spent a fair amount of time at the Two Medicine campground during the summer of 1997. I had come to Glacier as a volunteer for a non-denominational group that put on church services in the National Parks, aptly named "A Christian Ministry in the National Parks." They recruited me from my college, Northwest Nazarene, and got me a job in the park. There were four of us at Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier that summer and we did informal services on Sundays at both the lodge and the campground. It wasn't a ton of work, we sang a couple songs and someone would do a short "sermon" of sorts. We would go around the campground and tell the campers about the service beforehand, and so I can remember walking around the campground quite a bit, not to mention all the hikes we took in that area. So, setting up out camper under the shadow of the rocky peaks like Sinopah was pretty stinkin' cool. 

view from our campsite

We didn't get to East Glacier til early evening and when we stopped to pay the entrance fee we discovered that the RV spots in the campground were gone, but that we might fit in a tent spot. We do camp with a tent-trailer, so we hoped we'd fit. I was feeling kind of anxious that we wouldn't have a place to camp, but we did end up finding a great spot. Phew!  As we were enjoying our hot dogs and sausages cooked over the fire a Ranger came up to talk to us and I could hardly believe it. I totally recognized him! Not that he'd know me from Adam, but I knew he was the same very cool Ranger that was in the campground 15 years ago! He was telling us about a presentation that he'd be making at the campfire circle that night about an old goat. My mouth may have dropped open at that time because I totally remember the "old goat". I can't remember if I actually went to his talk that summer or if someone from my group had gone and told us about it, but I knew exactly what was going to happen and I had to take my kids to hear him talk. We finished eating, cleaned up camp and the girls and I headed up to the circle.

There was quite the crowd waiting to hear from the infamous Ranger Pat. 

His presentation was awesome. I knew it involved him dressing up as a mountain goat and giving us information about what it was like "being a goat" but I had no idea it would be as good as it was. I actually learned quite a bit and it was entertaining, too.

So that was our first night camping in Glacier National Park at Two Medicine Campground, and it was a great way to start our time there.