We decided to spend our anniversary visiting the “Swiss Alps of America” in the Many Glacier are of the park. Another benefit to staying near the east entrance of the main part of the park was that we were not very far from the Many Glacier area. We read online that you needed to get there early to get a parking spot so we got up at 4:30am in order to make the 45 minute drive up to the Many Glacier area. We headed out the door by 5:30am and we got a spot. From there we ate our breakfast, put on our hiking books, and prepared ourselves for the Grinnell Glacier Trail hike. This was what we were most excited about, as it is rated the best hike in the whole park, plus you’d get to see (up close) a glacier that will soon be gone. This hike is also your best chance to run into a 600lb grizzly bear! Needless to say I was nervously carrying my bear spray as we set off on the trail. Soon after we began the trail we saw orange signs saying that 2.5 miles in the trail was closed because someone found themselves 15ft from a grizzly bear a couple days prior. Bummer, but that was okay because we could take the trailhead to Grinnell Glacier Lake – a shorter hike that took you to a beautiful body of water consisting of all of the glacier water that had melted from the Grinnell Glacier. The hike was pretty and some areas were very hard to walk through since it felt like you were just walking in the middle of a tall meadow. Who lived in there? Who knows! Again, we had our bear spray close by in case anyone wanted to say hey. The lake was simply stunning and the reflection off of the water was a smooth mirror. While I would have loved to enjoy this lake all day, the mosquitos and flies did not care how much bug spray you put on your body – they were snacking on you. Regardless, we enjoyed our smashed pb&j lunch at the lake and watched the many who did not bring bug spray stick around for less than 5 minutes. We packed our trash in a scent proof bag for the hike back but before we departed we wanted to make sure we collected a little bit of glacier water. We each filled a small container with the water from the lake and then set out on our way back to the trailhead. We moved our car from the Grinnell Glacier Trailhead to the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn parking lot and checked out the cute little area. We shared some mountain blackberry ice cream as a treat. Doing research on All Trails led me to find out that if you visit Fishercap Lake (only a 5 minute hike from the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn area) you are likely to see a moose. Although most people see this elusive creature in the early morning hours or in the later afternoon – we decided we would give it a try at 2pm to see if any were in there. To our surprise, we saw a bull moose enjoying himself. He was beautiful and all alone – dunking his big head under water to snack on some water plants and surely cooling down from the 90+ degree heat. It was an honor to watch him for the entire hour and a half that we did. After that we changed parking lots once again and headed for the massive lot at the Many Glacier Lodge. They designed the lodge to look like a Swiss one and they even have their staff dress as though they are in Switzerland by wearing costumes. Funny that even in Switzerland they do not do this – but I love the dorky nature of it all. We decided to eat at the grab and go place in the lodge for dinner. Dining options are limited in the park to begin with since there are only lodges with food – but add the pandemic to the mix and there really were limited options for dining. You have to go outside of the park to find a restaurant or a gas station. We each enjoyed a cheeseburger & fries. I got a rhubarb cider while Megan got a local beer. We crept around the lodge looking at how majestic it all was then we went back to the car for the drive back to the cabin. Once at the cabin we celebrated our anniversary by opening the bottle of prosecco that we had brought along with us and some beef & cheese sticks from our hiking snacks. Classy.