Glacier Hikes

I'm going to try to finish up our cross country trip adventures soon, so I can start updating on more recent happenings for Brad and I.

We were excited about all the hiking opportunities in Glacier.  Our first hike was to Snyder Lake which was about 9 miles round trip.  We traveled next to the Snyder Creek for most of the hike, but we could only hear it - the trail never actually got close enough so that we could see it.  Nonetheless, it was a really nice hike that had a lot of tree cover.  About half way up our ascent, we came across some bear scat smack in the middle of the trail!  So, as we continued on, we clapped our way up the trail (which is recommended so you don't startle any bears).  We never came across the bear, but we did find Snyder Lake to be beautiful and serene.  We ate our lunch on a rock on the lake shore and watched the waterfalls of snow melt cascading off the mountains above us.  We also saw a mother duck taking her babies out for a swim lesson which was very cute.

After our hike, we were hot and sweaty, so we decided to stop along McDonald Creek.  The water seemed so refreshing, we decided to find a swimming spot on Lake McDonald.  We changed into our swim suits and since I can't even begin to describe how pristine the lake water is, we grabbed our goggles too.  We thought the water would be shockingly cold (it is snow melt after all), but it was endurable and super refreshing.  It was amazing how much we could see underwater with our goggles. Unfortunately, after we got out of the water and were drying out in the sun, the flies found us, so we couldn't stay for too long.

The next day we got up really early since our hike started in Many Glacier which meant we had to drive the Going to the Sun Road, then exit the park through the St. Mary entrance, drive north and then re-enter the park through the Many Glacier entrance. We had really wanted to hike the Grinnell Glacier trail, but it was closed to hikers that didn't have ice picks and crampons.  We knew our Iceberg Lake hike (10 mile roundtrip) would be crowded, but the hike would be worth it - and we were right.We had amazing views all along the trail; it was really super!  We had to cross numerous rushing creeks and there were wildflowers blooming all over (Kindness to Paul and Janet Blankenhorn for giving us their wildflower field guide of western North America - we have been using it a lot to identify (or trying to identify) flowers we have seen). The drive took us longer than we expected (about 3 hours) so we got a later start than we would have liked, but had we been on the trail about 20 minutes earlier, it is likely we would have come across four bears - at least that's what hikers we passed told us.  The last 3/4 mile of our hike to Iceberg Lake was in the snow.  It was really fun to be sliding around in the slush and of course a few snowballs were thrown.  Iceberg Lake was beautiful.  It was mostly still frozen and chunks of snow were still falling off the rock walls into the lake.  We had lunch on the lake edge, butdidn't stay too long since it was really crowded.   

We saw mountain goats hanging around construction equipment on our way to Many Glacier.

Sorry, I can't figure out how to make this picture vertical.

A view along our hike.

Standing above Iceberg Lake.

On our 3 hour drive back, we planned to go swimming again, but we drove into an intense rain/hail storm - to the point where we had to pull over because we couldn't see the road.  We were concerned about our campsite, so we drove directly back to our tent and sure enough, our tent had flooded since our campsite was slightly downhill.  We planned to stay in Glacier for one more night and leave the next morning, but our sleeping bags were soaked as well as our tent so we made the executive decision to pack up and head to Missoula for the night.  I need to run some errands.  I will try to finish up our trip later today, so stay tuned!