Glacier National Park

We had a terrific visit to Glacier National Park. The weather was very unexpected as it was about 80-90 degrees most days. Some of the campgrounds/facilities were closing down for the year which tells you this is not typical weather!

I also posted the pictures on Facebook with captions (and the pictures are a bit more clear). In a summary our trip was as follows:

Day 1: Flew to Seattle, and then back to Kalispell, Montana. (Flying over the Cascades and seeing Mt. Baker both got us excited.) We rented a car and then drove to East Glacier. After dinner, we headed over to the park to watch the sunset in the Two Medicine region. We saw the boat we would take in the morning to shorten our hike; it was a very old wooden boat named Sinopah and it's captain's name was Clint.

Day 2: We drove back into the park after staying the night in Two Medicine. Two Medicine Lake was a sheet of glass; we boarded the boat accross the lake to cut off about 2 miles of our hike. We knew we wanted to do the 17.5 mile Dawson-Pitamakan loop (it would have been 19.5 without the boat!), but didn't know if we would have enough energy. We decided to try and decide when we arrive 2500 vertical feet at Dawnson's Pass. The views were so terrific, we knew we had to press forward and do the whole loop. The traverse between the two passes was extremely difficult for me as there was a steep drop to one side of the trail and it was very loose stone...much concentration was needed with every step! After Pitamakan Pass, we heard from another group of hikers of a Grizzy Bear on the trail ahead; so we paired up with another single hiker who we met on the boat and all hiked the last 7 miles together. Overall, I think we only saw about 12 other hikers the whole trail. We never did see the Grizzly... After the hike, we traveled up to the Many Glacier area.

Day 3: We awoke and walked over to our trailhead, but there was a chain accross it stating it was closed due to dangerous bear activity. We remained flexible and decided on the Grinnell Glacier hike instead - this hike turned out to be fabulous! It was around 13 miles with a 1600 vertical gain. At the top, we saw the Grinnell Glacier and lake - it was very cold; we also saw Rams up at the top right on the trail (we had to wait for them to move). The lower Grinnell Lake was a fabulous color blue...and the wildflowers colorful.

Day 4: We set out to do part of the hike we planned the day before for the rangers had removed the chain...off we went! We were out early, and were the first to arrive at iceberg lake. We ended up playing music on Rob's phone to alert the bears in the area that we were there. The lake did have icebergs on it, and there were beautiful alpine meadows on the path. It was about 10 miles and 1200 vertical feet...one of the easier day hikes in the park. We did see a male moose about 15 feet off the trail (the ranger said the males were aggressive, so I kept moving and did not take a picture). Upon arriving back at Many Glacier, we started back to the other side of the park on the Going-To-The-Sun road - there were some spactacular views. We did the 3 mile Mary and Virginia falls hikes along the way.

Day 5: My knee started bothering me, so we took the day to drive into Waterton Park in Canada. This park was much different, it had a small tourist area with several restaurants and shops; also, the hiking did not appear to be as established as on the US side of the park. We were told there was more wildlife sightings in Canada, but alas, on a 90 degree day, all the bears were off lounging in the shade...we saw nothing! On the way back, we stopped at the trailhead we would have done this day. It seemed like it would have been perfect, so we know have a solid reason to go back.

Day 6: We had to catch our flight back in Kalispell, so we did a shorter 4 mile hike to Avalanch Lake. It was a nice hike, but not as scenic as the East side of the park. We both decided we like the East side better than the West side.

Overall, Glacier is a gem; we could have easily used a few more days there. The park is well set up for one-way hikes with the shuttle bus - but you must be mindful of when the shuttle runs (it is not active after Labor Day). So next time, I would like to go when the shuttles are operational so some more interesting one-way hikes could be done; there are several recommended between the Logan Pass and Many Glacier areas.

In the end, we did see one bear. It was in the Many Glacier area from the parking lot of the Swiftcurrent Inn. In the evening, several people sit outside and look up onto the mountain to look for wildlife. About two miles away, a dark spot was seen moving around. With our binoculars, we still only saw a black smudge; another visitor allowed us to use his view scope and sure enough, it was a big old Grizzly. I am very glad we didn't see him on the trail!