On Day 7, we didn’t have a lot planned. We wanted to make it to Glacier, which wasn’t too far of a drive, considering how much we were driving on other days.
We decided to go back to Yellowstone for the morning and spend time at the Mammoth Hot Springs before heading out.
On the way, we drove a little out of the way to stop for lunch in Bozeman. It was worth it to get real food! I was not expecting downtown Bozeman to be so crowded. We were lucky to find a parking spot in a public lot not too far from the restaurant we picked out. Since our first choice for lunch had a long wait, we walked another block off the main area and found a place that wasn’t too crowded. And then got ice cream and candy at the store next to the restaurant. With full tummies, we headed off towards Glacier. We made one stop at a bear rescue place, since we hadn’t gotten to see any bears in Yellowstone and the kids really wanted to get to see a bear.
Our adventure really started when we thought the day was done. Before we pulled into the parking lot, we knew that this would probably be the worst hotel we would stay at, even though it was also probably the most expensive. It didn’t get great reviews online but we also couldn’t find anything else that was available near the east entrance of Glacier.
We drove past the motel at first and Google maps brought us to a barren field. Uh oh. Luckily (?) the hotel charged us (even though it wasn’t supposed to be pre-paid) before we left. The name that showed up on my credit card statement was different than any hotel we booked. Eventually, after calling my credit card company and doing a little research, I figured out that the charge was from this hotel and it had been bought out by another hotel in the area. I had called the hotel because we were overcharged and it was supposed to be taken care of. Of course, it wasn’t. But, when we drove back down the street trying to find our hotel, I recognized the name.
When we pulled in the lot, there was one other car. It looked like the entire hotel had five or six rooms. We were given the key for the room next to the only other person that was there. The “breakfast” was already in the refrigerator in the room – a squeezable yogurt and a NutraGrain bar. For three people. Even though we booked for four. I started unpacking the car and lugging everything into the room. DH came out of the bathroom and said “stop.” Apparently, the bathtub had not been cleaned. At all. As in it looked like someone in construction had tried to rinse off in the shower, unsuccessfully.
DH asked if we could have another room. After the woman in the main office literally opened different doors to rooms to check on the cleanliness, she went to talk to her mother, who lived in one of the rooms. They told us that they didn’t have any clean rooms and that they would refund us. Umm…that’s nice but where are we supposed to sleep tonight? We had VERY limited cell service but tried to start searching for other hotels. Not surprisingly, we were striking out on any availability.
Eventually, we got through to a hotel that said it had one room left. Yeah! It happened to be affiliated with that hotel so it seemed like everything would work out and they would transfer us over there. Even though that hotel was “much nicer” and more expensive, they wouldn’t charge us more. (Or at least that’s what we assumed because they didn’t tell us that we would be charged anything more.)
After packing up the car, we drove over to the other hotel. It ended up being about a 20 min drive but was about the same distance away from Glacier because the roads made a triangle to get into Glacier. The other hotel said they would leave the key out for us and not to worry about checking in because no one would be in the office when we arrived.
By this time, it was starting to get dark. We pulled into a slightly larger motel with a lot of small cabins next to the motel. There was no one in the office and we couldn’t figure out where the key was. When DH called the office number to find out how we were supposed to get in the room, I noticed that there was a bullet hole in the window. The office staff claimed the hole was made by a rock that flew up from the parking lot. I didn’t feel good about staying in that room and neither did the kids. A few blocks before, we had past another hotel that said it had vacancies. So, we decided to try that one out. It was a huge hotel. It had three rooms left – a suite and two rooms with one queen each. After I paid for the suite (which was slightly cheaper than getting two rooms and those two room were nowhere close to each other so it probably wouldn’t have worked well), the front desk informed me that we would be on the second floor and there was no elevator. They said they could send a bell hop to help.
When the bell hop came out to the car, we were seriously debating what to do because the room was over $500 for the night. No elevator and $500?! And, of course, breakfast was not included, although there was a restaurant. When the bell hop informed us that there were also no refrigerators in the rooms and it was a rustic lodge, DH said no way. Our kids need to toughen up and they can sleep in a room with a bullet hole in the window. So, I went back inside and cancelled. The bell hop also suggested we check out another hotel in town, which happened to be the same one Grandma S. had suggested we stay at. That one hadn’t had any availability for 4 people when we booked our original hotel but we decided to drive past. Maybe people had cancelled due to the forest fires in the area. Nope. That office had closed at 5pm and it was closed tight. The sign said to come back tomorrow and tough luck if you had a reservation and missed check-in. So back it was to the bullet hole motel. DH said it would be fine because most of the cars in the parking lot looked OK.
It was not the cleanest but it was at least slightly better than the first hotel. We needed to open windows for A/C. And there was no door lock for the door between our room and the neighboring door. After we got everything unloaded from the car, we moved some furniture to block entry from the other room and the door going outside.
It took quite a while for the kids to calm down enough to go to sleep that night. And the breakfast that was in the room was somehow even worse than the breakfast at the original hotel!