Glacier National Park, MT
June 16 – 19th, 2008
Come to the Big Sky country in 2008 for the annual convention of the Zane Grey’s West Society. Our destination this year is Glacier National Park, one of the jewels in the National Park system. The convention will be hosted at the Glacier Park Lodge, one of the most famous lodges in the country, and located on the southeast corner of Glacier National Park, at East Glacier, Montana.
Zane Grey visited Glacier Park, with Dolly, and stayed at Glacier Park Lodge in July of 1917 on one of their cross country trips. I’m sure he was as moved by the magnificent scenery as you will be. This is going to be a fantastic experience and I want to encourage all ZGWS members to make it to this convention.
The tentative agenda is as follows:
| Date | Time | Event/Activity | |
| Monday, June 16 | Afternoon | Check-in and Registration. | |
| Evening | Opening BBQ Dinner. | ||
| Tuesday, June 17 | Early Morning | Memorial Breakfast. | |
| Morning | Morning – opening meetings, Keynote address by Dr. Joe Wheeler | ||
| Afternoon | Annual Auction to benefit the Society | ||
| Evening | Member’s Book Fair | ||
| Wednesday, June 18 | All-day | Tours into Glacier using the famous Red Bus Tours | |
| Thursday, June 19 | Morning | Annual Business meeting, Dr. Charles Pfeiffer’s famous slide shows on Grey’s travels | |
| Afternoon | On your own. | ||
| Evening | Closing Banquet |
As many of you who have attended a convention know, we have a tradition of having an after convention trip. This typically is to a location that might be less appropriate for a convention, but of great interest to the members, especially those who want to get outdoors to hike or see the scenery. For example, past After Convention Trips have included Trapper’s Lake in Colorado, Crater Lake in Oregon, Rainbow Bridge in Utah, the Grey family home in Altadena, CA, Monument Valley in Arizona, and Moab, Utah. This year, rather than having an After Convention trip, we are splitting the extra activities into one night before the convention and one night after the convention, in order to see more of Glacier and experience some of the other lodges in Glacier. I want to stress that these are not part of the convention, but are for the additional experience. Sunday night, June 15th, we have a block of rooms reserved at Many Glaciers Lodge in the park, and then Friday night after the convention, we have another block of rooms reserved at Prince of Wales Lodge in Waterton Park, on the Canadian side of Glacier.
Some important details:
The best location to fly into for the convention is Kalispell, Montana. They have a very nice, modern airport, with multiple carriers serving it. Rental cars are available.
You can also take the train. There is a train station right in front of Glacier Park Lodge. Check with Amtrak.
To get the lodging reservation form, contact Terry Bolinger at tbolin3194@aol.com or call him at 303-627-1855. Please do not call central reservations – go through us in order to make your reservations.
If you are going to Prince of Wales, I want to encourage you to get your passport updated and do it soon. The US passport offices are swamped with new requirements, and it is taking a long time to get passports. Passports will probably be required in order to cross over into Canada to get to Prince of Wales.
The altitude in Glacier is not that high – the highest point is only around 6000 feet and where we are at the lodge is closer to 4000 feet.
Bring jackets – it is still fairly cool and it rains fairly commonly at this time of year in Glacier.
Contact Terry Bolinger at tbolin3194@aol.com if you need any more information.
So, come to Glacier in 2008 – you won’t be sorry!
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Future conventions:
The 2009 ZGWS Annual Convention will be held in Mormon Lake, AZ.