The park is on fire.

In just a couple hours, the terrain changed from this...
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I learned an important lesson in train travel today – when someone says that a place is “one stop before” somewhere else, it is important to ask from which direction. We had a slight mix-up in our train tickets, which resulted in our ticketed destination being somewhere other than where we really needed to go. After an hour or so of panic, the conductor helped us resolve it though.

The land in Montana is beautiful. It is mostly huge expanses of prairie grass and not much else. We saw an occasional ranch, a few very small towns, and some cows, horses, and elk.

An important lesson in train travel

...to this.
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About 2 hours before we got to Glacier Park, the sky started to change. It was still mid-afternoon, but the sky seemed to darken almost like it was coastal fog. The conductor announced that it was smoke. He said, “Glacier Park is burning.” Apparently, there had been severe wildfires burning for a couple days. With the smoke this thick 2 hours away, I could only imagine how bad it might be and feared the worst – that the park might be closed. Always one for thinking of Plan B, I thought we could be happy staying at a hotel and just reading for three days if necessary.

The Izaak Walton Inn
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Somewhere toward the west, nearing the Continental Divide, the landscape dramatically changed. In a distance of just 20 or so miles, the golden flat prairies gave way to mountains and dense forests of pines and birch. It was really a dramatic metamorphosis. The land suddenly looked a lot like the parts of Canada that I backpacked in as a kid. (And if fact, Glacier Park borders Canada.)

Toward our final destination in Glacier Park, we noticed that the smoke was not nearly as bad as it had been earlier. We did see some fires burning a mile or so away from the tracks, but overall the sky was not as thick with smoke.

As we approached our final stop on the train, we looked out the window for signs of Essex, the small town where our hotel was. The web site for the hotel showed it directly adjacent to the train tracks. As we slowed to a stop though, we saw no hotel or buildings of any kind. There were only the few “train watchers” that we seemed to see at every stop. As we disembarked, one of the people said, “Hi. I’m here to meet you.” Wow. We didn’t know we were being “met”! Just behind her was a red van marked Izaak Walton Inn, our hotel. The woman said that she would drive us over, or if we preferred, she’d take our bags, and we could walk the 500 feet to the hotel. We chose the latter.

As soon as we saw it, we knew this inn was something special. It is an unusual combination of rustic and luxurious. The décor is north woods. Knotty pine walls and ceilings. No phones or televisions. But great wireless access, phenomenal food, a hot sauna, a fun bar, and great service.

Although the restaurant normally closes for dinner at 8:00, the staff told us that they’d keep it open late so we could eat. (They seem very used to making accommodations around late train schedules and/or whatever the guests want.) We had an excellent dinner. Brad had fresh trout stuffed with blue cheese, bacon, and tomatoes. I had a giant salad with bread and soup. We finished off with huckleberry cobbler to go (eaten in the bar with Baileys on ice, so I could work on email).

After a long day, it was great to go to sleep in a real bed. Our room looked out over the train tracks with unbelievable mountains in the background. We slept great and didn’t hear a single train all night.