Fearing long waits for the best hikes, we left the house at 7:30 this morning. We had snacks and lunch packed and hit the road for a decent drive to the park. From where we are at on the mountain, it took just under an hour to get to the gates of Glacier. We could have stayed closer, but I chose Whitefish because it has more to do than the other towns and I found the best place for the money here. As is always the case, though, once you get into the NP gates, you still have some driving to do.
We chose to go pretty far in today, about 30 miles, to Logan Pass. Will had read about it as one of the most popular hikes. It was quite a ways up, so Will had to navigate on a lot of winding roads. What's hardest for him is not being able to look at the scenery as we go. That, and trying not to kill us all by driving off a cliff. We didn't stop at all along the way, though we saw many enticing places, because we knew the parking lot at Logan fills up. It took at least another 50 minutes to drive there, but it was worth it! Logan pass has a hike up to Hidden Lake Lookout. From there, you can also hike down to the lake. Each hike is about 1.5 miles. When we started out, we learned via signage that the hike down to the lake was closed due to major bear activity! Good to know, at least, that they warn you.
The hike started off with wooden platforms with stairs but quickly turned to walking over feet of snow. It was so much fun! The sun is intense at the higher elevation, and with a high in the 90s, it felt plenty warm. So here we all were, clad in shorts and t-shirts, walking through the snow. One highlight was when we rounded a bend only to run smack dab into a family of mountain goats. Will and Eleanor were a bit behind and came right upon them. They were probably only a couple feet away, so Will got some great pics. They told us later that the baby jumped up onto the ice and did some kind of flip. Eleanor loved it!
We slipped and slid up some more snow before getting back onto solid ground at the lookout. The view down to the lake was spectacular. It was a long, narrow lake with hues of blue and green against the mountain backdrop, it was just breathtaking. We chose to have our picnic lunch up here, alongside many others and some more mountain goats.
As you can imagine, our hike down was a bit more difficult, but also a lot of fun. We essentially slid down on the snow in some parts. I heard a woman say that she took her niece to the same place last June, and there was barely any snow. Apparently, they had a pretty significant snowfall this year. Really, this was my most fun hiking experience. There was something so great about being out in the sun, feeling plenty warm, while looking down at your feet in the snow. So cool. Get it?
After the Hidden Lake hike, we took a little fruit and water break before deciding to hike part of the Highline trail. This was a long hike, and more dangerous, but we had read that many people went in a ways and then turned around. It started off easy enough but then turned into a section with a cliff going up on your right and straight down on your left. At this point, Will decided to call it for him and Eleanor, and Ethan and I decided to go in a bit more. It was quite steep, but there was a rubber rope of sorts attached to the cliff side to hold onto. I gave Ethan strict orders not to let go of the rope, and we hiked a bit more. You could easily hike it without holding on, but one major misstep could be disastrous, so I felt better holding on. A bit into the trail, though, the rope disappeared because the right side was no longer a high cliff. To your left, though, was still a 80 degree drop, though, so we decided we would turn around, too.
Next, we decided to go back to the car (Will had had to park a ways down the road due to a full parking lot) and hit some of the sites we missed on the way. Our first stop was a big waterfall we had seen people climbing on. This was the perfect place to take off our shoes and soak our sore feet. It wasn't a steep waterfall where we were, so you could walk around on the rocks and even go close to the cliff wall and take a little mountain water shower, which we all did.
Our next stop, I believe, was at Lake MacDonald, which is not far from the entrance. I am hazy here because I know I dozed a bit in the car at this point. My sleep has been restless while away, so I am very tired. The combo of the music, the open windows, and my exhaustion put me in a bit of a trance on this part of the ride. Regardless, we got to Lake MacDonald. I was not a proponent of taking our suits with us, as it was already close to 4 pm. With an hour to get home, I had really hoped that we could try to have dinner set before 7 pm, as these are such long days. But then when I saw the lake, I thought, okay, we better go in!
We changed al fresco again (I am getting pretty good at putting my suit on under a towel) and got into the water. The beach is all rocks, which was a bit difficult since we didn't have water shoes. I did cut my foot on one rock. But when you got in a few feet, you could go forward into the water. With goggles on, I saw that the rocks had a steep drop off about 5 feet in. It was pretty neat. The water was not very cold and felt amazing. We spent some times swimming around before drying off and going back to the car.
On the way home, I stopped off at Safeway for a couple things we forgot yesterday. Once home, the kids wanted to go to the pool since we had said they could earlier when we thought it wouldn't be too late. Since dinner would take at least 30 minutes, I sent Will with them and made some burgers and fries. We ate, I showered, and half of us are asleep. The other half are half asleep.
So far, this trip is going really well. The kids bicker a bit at times, but there has not been a lot of major complaining. Eleanor hasn't had a problem on the hiking and is enjoying herself. And while the driving seems long, it really goes by fairly quickly because there's so much to look at. I'm so happy we took this trip and look forward to exploring Glacier the next few days. Will is reading up right now on what we should do tomorrow.
3 comments:
I need to see these pictures!! It sounds like an incredible NP. Take care of that cut on your foot. I hope you sleep well tonight!!
Finally remembered to read your blog tonight and figured out how to comment. Thanks so much for writing it. It's wonderful for us to read what you're doing each day. Love to all.
Sounds like so much fun and beautiful pictures, but Mom doesn't like to read about hiking up alongside an 80 degree drop!
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