high on the hill...

...were a not so lonely trio of mountain goats (three tiny white moving dots) above this very Swiss looking alpine scene.

Built in 1914-15 by the Great Northern Railway the Many Glacier Hotel sits grandly on the shores of the Swiftcurrent Lake with Grinnell Point towering in the background. GNR built all of Glacier Park's lodges and hotels and they  feature cavernous lobbies constructed from giant Cedar logs (entire trees) around which balconies and floors of rooms hang overlooking the lobby.
The hotel's decor is a curious mix of Swiss Chalet and American West and Japanese and we have lunch in the Ptarmigan Dining Room room looking out on the lake where a moose just so happens to be wading and lunching in the shoreside waters on the opposite side (while I scoffed an Elk Sloppy Joe!)

Driving through the park across the Continental Divide at Logan Pass it is easy to see how the park gets its name from the glacier fields of ice slabs patched in high mountain valleys and tops.
Of the 150 glaciers that existed in 1850 only 25 remain and by 2030 modelling systems predict none will remain (extra). The diminishing ice fields effect the whole ecosystem as  milky glacial melt during the warmer months provides the only source of stream and river flow after the snow melts and maintains water temperatures.
As water temperatures increase, invertebrate ecology living in very narrow temperature gradients changes ultimately affecting the entire ecosystem...from little things big things grow.

As the glaciers diminish in size however I suspect I am growing with delicious meals in very generous portions and on our way from Many Glaciers to East Glacier Lodge and bed for the night we stop at the  Babb Bar and Cattle Baron Supper Club.
Now owned by Bob Burns, a Blackfeet tribal member, the bar was once named the second rowdiest bar in the US by Playboy magazine! (where was the first I wonder?)
No rowdies to be seen or heard but a plate of the best homebaked blueberry pie and cheesecake icecream goes down a treat in the Bunkhouse cafe as does a visit to the cowboy themed restroom (extra).

Day three tumbles into bed in East Glacier Village after nachos and 'flan'
at Serano's Mexican accompanied by a guitar duet drifting up from the lobby.
How lucky to have this opportunity to still glimpse the glaciers of Glacier before they melt away to nothing.