Lake McDonald Lodge is the historic hotel at the head of the lake, built facing the water because its first guests arrived by boat. Today's road brings visitors to what was once the rear, so the classic view is from the lakeside. In summer the lodge area has three restaurants and a camp store, along with flush toilets, a boat dock and an electric vehicle charger across from the store, and it is the only food on the road between Apgar and Rising Sun. Inside, the big fireplace carries petroglyph-style figures that legend ties to Charlie Russell, a story usually doubted. The lodge and the road are both National Historic Landmarks, and this is where the two meet. Across the road, a trailhead leads to the long Sperry and Gunsight trails. A Boone tale plays here for listeners who park.
Hungry? The road to Lake McDonald Lodge is on your left a few hundred yards on, across the oncoming lane, with three restaurants and a camp store in summer, flush toilets and a boat dock at the end of it. In season it's the last food until Rising Sun, about thirty-three miles on, and nothing is sold in between. If you pulled in, turn left to carry on east. If you park, Boone has a tale here, three or four minutes. If I cut out when you shut the car off, tap play. You're about to meet this lodge from behind. It faces the lake, because its first guests came by boat, and the road delivers you to what used to be the rear. Road access arrived in nineteen twenty-two, and the back door has been doing the front door's job ever since. So walk through the building and out to the water side. That's the view the place was built to give you. On your way through, stop at the fireplace. The figures cut into its concrete look like petroglyphs, and legend says Charlie Russell scratched them there. The usual verdict is that it's just a story, though some art historians think it's possible. He certainly knew the place. Russell bought land near Apgar in nineteen oh six, built a summer home with a skylit studio, and sold his art at this hotel. If you're driving electric, the one charger the park names on this road is across from the camp store. Across the road from the lodge lot, a trail starts up toward Sperry and Gunsight. It was built in nineteen oh two and nineteen oh three by about fifteen University of Minnesota students, working without wages for the chance to spend a summer in the mountains. Doctor Lyman Sperry laid it out, and it still varies little from his line. Hikes from here are long, so save them for a day you've planned. About two miles past the lodge, watch for an unmarked pull-off on your left, across the oncoming lane, for McDonald Falls. The walkway to the falls partly follows the nineteen twenty-two road, behind a guard wall built for it, and the old grade carries on past the end of the path. The early lake had a packer named Uncle Jeff Jefferson, who stood about six foot six, with a long white beard he used to hide a big meerschaum pipe, so the smoke came curling up through the whiskers. People found it startling, and I suspect that was the idea.
Photo: David Restivo / NPS · CC BY 2.0