We were able to fit in one more day in Glacier to go see the main event. Glaciers are kind of an enigma of natural forces. It's just a really big piece of ice right, or is it a slow, frozen river? Either way, their power equals earthquakes and volcanoes in their impact. We first saw glaciers in July in Glacier Bay, Alaska, where you can still listen to cracks and pops from sheets of ice that are hundreds of feet thick and gradually flow, ripping off chunks of the mountains and taking them to the sea.
Here in Glacier, Montana the mountain carving is done and the Glaciers have almost all melted into lakes. There are mountains that you can easily see the different layers of rock that have been pushed up out of the earth and slowly scraped away by tons of rock. There is, fortunately, a couple remaining spots where you can still get up and close with a Glacier, but you have to earn our way there by hiking 6 miles and gain 1600 feet to reach them.
Our hike of choice for our last day of Glacier National Park was Grinnell Glacier. Grinnell is predicted to be completely defunct (gone) by 2030. We’re glad we took this opportunity to see it while we still can!
We steadily gained elevation as we hiked through flowers and shoulder-high berry bushes. This was pretty unnerving because there was signs everywhere warning us about the grizzlies in the area. Almost every hiker we passed jingled with bear bells, but they say the most effective deterrent is loud talking. Good thing Aaron comes with that standard. At one point we picked up the pace because Aaron was hearing what sounded like loud slurping. Sarah couldn't hear it, but for Aaron, it was so loud! No worries, it was just the water jug sloshing around in the backpack. Their haste brought them up past the tree line so they had lunch at an awesome view of yet another teal alpine lake.
We highly recommend this hike, but we also recommend starting early. It's picturesque every step of the way and can attract quite a crowd. We saw a herd of longhorn sheep, wild flowers, and unbeatable views of the valley below. When we finally reached the glacier at the top of Mount Gould we were around 7000 feet. We enjoyed feeling the water, freshly melted off the glacier, as well as wondering about the fascinating geology surrounding us. The only disappointment was that we couldn't stay at the top longer.
As if the hike couldn’t get any better, on the descent things got even more interesting. A boat full of tourists was crossing the lake and we watched them suddenly stop and head for the shore about 100 yards ahead of us. Their fingers were pointed and cameras were blazing and up ahead the path was full of halted hikers. Turns out it was snack-time for a momma grizzly bear and her 3 cubs and the middle of the path was the perfect spot. Sarah fearlessly marched up to the front of the crowd to get close enough for a good picture. We pretty much all acted fearless, but there certainly were a lot of bearspray cans at the ready. We watched them quizzically enjoy their lunch entertainment and eventually they tumbled across the trail and slid off to the lake for a drink. Our time in Glacier National Park was then complete.
Glacier National Park is one of the most user-friendly parks that we have been to. The Going-to-the-Sun Road may have a far-too-long name, but it offers a fantastic tour of the highlights of the park. And they even offer red jammer tours for those that want their history with a little class or who'd like to look at more than the sharp curves ahead. Their campgrounds are well maintained and they even have a number of fancy lodges to stay at for a more "indoor" outdoors. We did enjoy one night in their campgrounds, but lucky for us, we were also in Montana to visit the Wilkins.
We were pretty excited to see Howard and Karen, to enjoy the historic blue couches, but we had no idea what a treat we were in for!The Wilkins Property brings back memories of an epic New Year's eve trip in high school which was "Sweet-Fun". When we called Karen on our way into Montana, not only were we welcomed, but it just happened that Janice Monkowski and her sister-in-laws were there for a visit. Now let me give you some context so you can understand the amazingness of this chance meeting. Two of Aaron's best friends from high school were Adam and Melanie, and now they're married. Melanie's mom is Karen, who now lives in Montana, so we were expecting to get to see her. Adam's mom, Janice, lives in Danville CA, and once a year, she gets together with her sisters-in-law, Carol and Annette. This year, that get-together just happened to be hosted by Karen and Howard at the same time that we just happened to be driving through Montana. Now if that doesn't sound crazy awesome, we just haven't written it right.
Now you may be thinking, "So they hung out with their friends' moms? This was fun?" It was so much fun! All four of these ladies came for some good hikes, and they know what they were doing. Karen knows Glacier like her own backyard because, well, it kind of is her backyard. She can hike as fast as a normal person can jog. Janice has known Aaron since elementary school and is always good for a long conversation, and when you throw her sisters-in-law into the mix, there's usually four or five conversations happening simultaneously. When we arrived in Kalispell, we were sat right down to some warm creamy chicken lasagna, a perfect salad, huckleberry pie, and chocolate bread pudding. Seriously. You can't follow up a day of hiking much better. Oh, wait, we also got our own bedroom and bathroom and in the morning Karen made fresh croissants and blueberry muffins. C'mon; I love going to see the Wilkins. The next day, we were right back on the trail, and this time it was Sarah, Aaron, Janice, Carol, and Nettie. We were headed up to the Hidden Lake Trail, a hike Sarah and Aaron had foregone since they were avoiding the crowds. The trail starts at a visitor's center which sits at highest point on the park road and has attracted so many people over the years that they built a wooden boardwalk to lessen the crowds ecological impact. The thought of crowds and a boardwalk were deterrents for us, but Karen sold it in style: she pulled out a painting that a local artist had painted for her based on one of her photographs. If all those people want to see what's up there, it must be worth a look-see. The trail is a three mile round trip boardwalk that gradually gives a better view of the area as the grade inclines. There are plenty of visual appetizers along the way of almost all the best of Montana's wildflowers. You're also bound to run into a surly mountain goat or a marmot going about his business. The view at the end is also quite breathtaking. Glacial water never disappoints. Blue, beautiful view of blue. Aaron caught up with Janice and Sarah chatted with Carol and Nettie, and we all took pictures. It was a good time. At the top we enjoyed our lunches and watched the nearby animals. Aaron really wanted to get a close-up of the Marmot, and so he hid in the shade of nearby tree. It turns out that the spot belonged to a mountain goat, who came right over when he saw it had been stolen. The mountain goat won. We all hiked a little more, talked a little more, and snapped our little cameras silly. This chance meeting was bound to end, so the next morning the girls were off to the airport. Thanks for letting us invade your special time, it was really special for us!
So the glaciers are melting, but apparently, they’re never going to change the name of the park. Glaciers after all, carved the whole thing, so you could argue that it’s still a very appropriate name. Regardless, it is insanely beautiful.
Our first impression: Glacier has lame visitor centers; they're basically gift shops. Up to this point we have relied on visitors centers to help us decide what to do in the parks, and every ranger we talked to said, "There's not a bad hike in the park". Their responses were a little too scripted, and really, just not very helpful. Since there was no internet to fall back on, Aaron spent some time reading through some of the books in the gift shops and figured out a plan.
To be fair to the unhelpful rangers, Glacier is gigantic and has over 700 miles of trails to hike, and it's quite accurate to say that there isn't a bad hike in the park. The park has an extensive backcountry for a nice backpacking trip, but there's also a whole variety of day hikes with parking right off the road. A big factor in planning is that Glacier is extremely popular; most of the park is closed 9 months out of the year because of snowfall and construction, so when it's open, it's packed! There's four sections of the park that you can drive to, but the two sections you come to see are the Going-to-the-Sun Road and Many Glacier. We decided Glacier would be a four day stop.
Our first day we took the Going to the Sun Road from one end of the park to the other, with a little 2 mile hike at the half way point. We had settled on a plan at the Logan Pass visitor center and the good thing was that there was a popular trailhead right out front, though it looked like a slow line of tourists as far as the eye could see. To our surprise, we crossed paths with a random ranger who had some excellent advice. Just 10 yards down the main trail there was a roped off trial that he recommended. He said it led through fields of flowers, a great waterfall, but we were sold by the promise of hiking alone. Well, as you can see, we were't totally alone.
Hike #1 was short but so nice. We warmed up to Glacier. Aaron really changed his mind at the free Ranger-guided star gazing that night. They brought out two huge telescopes and let everyone take turns checking out the skies. And of course, we took pictures, but we took them through a telescope. C'mon how cool is this:
