Well, Seth and I returned on Tuesday from our trip to Glacier National Park. What we had planned as our big, 10 day summer trip turned into something of an "outdoors light" situation, which is what prompted the slightly early return. We went to Glacier by train, having ridden through several times on our cross-country trips to visit home, and used the shuttle that runs the East/West road (nearly the only road) that crosses the park. Our hope had been to hike from West to East across the park over several days, and then slowly make our way back to the West Glacier train station by way of the shuttle. However, they had an unseasonalbly late snow this year and the Continental Divide was still snowed out, making a long West/East traverse a no-go with the gear we had. We did some beautiful day hikes (though they were busy), took a kayak out on Lake McDonald (something new for us and probably the most solitude we got on this trip) and met some absolutely lovely people. We're definitely hoping to go back sometime when we might be able to do the type of trip that we had originally envisioned, and perhaps even a more extensive trip through Montana, as the small taste we got of the culture there was intriguing and fun. We're considering this something of a recon/planning trip for our return, so without further ado, the visual intel:
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| First Day: the dock at Lake McDonald, layers of the jagged Rockies behind |
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| Also on the first day, we hiked up to this lovely Chalet. You can book a room here (at least 6 months in advance, please); it's one of two hike in only Chalets in the park. |
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| This is what it looked like on the way up. |
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| ...and this |
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| ...and this. |
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| and this is what we looked like at the top. |
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| not bad for a bus stop, right? |
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| Day two: out in the middle of Lake McDonald for a picnic lunch. We rented the kayak overnight, and were able to take it out two more times: once for sunset and again for a quick morning paddle before we returned it. |
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| Day four: (three was kind of a wash of planning/failure) hiked up to a lake, of which there were no good views, but there were good views on the way. This is one of them. |
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| Bear grass flowers (and Seth being silly in them) |
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| Day five: we got some inclement weather so Seth and I rode the shuttle over the the East side of the park and back. This is what it looked like over there. |
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| ...and this. Check out the banding on this thing! |
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| Staying dry while literally in the clouds, snapping a photo out the shuttle door. |
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| For our last couple of nights we moved to a smaller campsite with great access to Lake McDonald's pebbly beaches (and no generator noise)! |
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| Big Sky Country over the lake |
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| On our last day we did a less popular hike (no vistas) which allowed us some solitude, and a walk through this lovely meadow. The trail otherwise wound through the woods paralleling the road, meaning that we got to hike it one way and grab a beer at the lodge afterwards! |
