Glacier National Park

I've been wanting to go to Glacier National Park for about 5 years, and it finally happened. It was everything I was hoping for! We did all the touristy stuff along the 'Going to The Sun Road.' We covered about 50 hiking miles, and I loved everything about it.  I was obsessed, and wanted to see it all! I live in a beautiful area, so when I say this, don't take it lightly, but this is some of the most insanely gorgeous country I've ever been in! 

We got into the park on Thursday afternoon, stopped for a quick sign picture, got a couple souvenirs, checked out Lake McDonald, and stopped at all the viewpoints on the way to our first hike.

I felt like a kid on Christmas! I was so excited!

The rainbow rocks in Lake McDonald really make it beautiful. 

Lake McDonald is the largest lake in the park, and is over 470 feet deep in some places.

The Going To the Sun Road winds around Lake McDonald and through the cedar pines at the beginning. It follows a river with endless waterfalls, so we stopped at the viewpoints along the way.

This was the Redrock Viewpoint, and it was our favorite. The colors were amazing.

So pretty!

Avalanche Lake & Trail of the Cedars:

Our first hike was 6.5 miles through the Trail of the Cedars, and on to Avalanche Lake. It was the perfect way to start our weekend adventure. It wasn't nearly as crowded as we were warned about, because we got there in the evening. The hike was beautiful, and followed a creek with lots 

 of waterfalls that flowed through some cool narrow rock passages. The lake was stunning, with the best rugged rock wall for a backdrop. We hiked clear to the end of the lake, and had the whole thing to ourselves. We met the cutest little beaver, and watched him for a long time. He wasn't one bit scared of us, and just swam around, and then came almost out of the water for snacks. I could have watched him for hours, but we were running out of daylight, and wanted to see more of the road on our way to our sleeping spot.

The cedar trees.

Such a fun trail, following a fantastic creek.

Avalanche Lake

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Hiking around to the far end.

The reflections were so good!

Our cute little beaver friend!

The sound of him eating was the cutest. I hate hearing humans eat, but I love listening to animals chew their food. 😂

I loved the reflections, the color of the rocks and water, the backdrop, and basically everything about the lake,

The color of the water showed up a lot better from the far end of the lake. 

We hiked out pretty fast, because we were losing daylight, and we wanted to see as much of the Going To the Sun Road as we could before it got dark.

This park tested Mark several times with his fear of heights, and driving to the Logan Pass on the Going to The Sun Road was just the start of him having to get really far out of his comfort zone.

One of the views climbing the Going to The Sun Road as the sun was going down.

We slept in our car at the Logan Pass, because we were getting an early start on the Highline Trail in the morning. While we were getting situated, there was a big horn sheep wandering around the parking lot.

The Highline Trail:

The Highline Trail is a point to point 13.5 mile trail that starts at the Logan Pass, and ends at the Loop Viewpoint on the Going to the Sun Road. We did the whole thing, including the Grinnel Glacier overlook, and then took the shuttle bus back up to our car. It was amazing! We woke up to fog covering the Logan Pass. We waited a little while to see if it would burn off, and then just decided to go for it. It ended up making the views look even better. Mark didn't really know what he was in for. Driving the road made him get woozy, and little did he know, he was going to be doing a lot of the same thing, but on foot, and a lot higher up. 😳 There was only a mile or two of sketchy parts, and the rest was fine. He just had to keep moving, and looking right in front of him. He wasn't a big fan of me trying to stop him for pictures, and needless to say, he didn't enjoy the views quite as much as I did. It was good practice, because he was in for a lot worse later in the day. 😬

So excited to get started!

This was the first mile of the trail. It drops off a long way right down to the road.

The fog gave the beginning an eerie feel.

There were a lot of signs of fall in the park, but some flowers were still hanging on.

The trail was mostly side hilling.

I loved this part!

The fog was so pretty!

Behind us shows all the clouds just hanging out at the Logan Pass.

We weren't going to be able to go to the section of the park that has the hike to the Grinnell Glacier, so we were excited to take the 2 mile out and back detour to the overlook. It was a good climb, and we were afraid we'd get to the top and just see a wall of white fog. We took the chance anyways, and we were rewarded greatly. It was stunning! Pictures don't do it justice. We were only up there looking at it for a few minutes, because it was cold and windy at the saddle.

The Grinnell Glacier

I would love to go back earlier in the season and hike to it, when the lake is still covered in ice.

The trail up to the overlook was some steep side hilling, but Mark did great on this part. He must have been getting acclimated.

There is a chalet for backpackers along the Highline Trail. It was built in 1914. I wish we would have taken the time to eat there, but we had a lot more to do and see.

The bottom arrow shows a part of the Highline Trail we had already done, and the top arrows shows the saddle that we were on overlooking the glacier.

Toward the end of the hike, we started getting great views of Heaven's Peak. It was huge!

Hidden Lake & Dragon's Tail:

This hike was almost 9 miles of jaw dropping beauty. It was my favorite of the trip, and possibly my new all time favorite hike. The only thing that compares to the views from where I went is my favorite place in the Sawtooths. I think I was on a high for quite a while after this one.

We started the hike with just a normal popular one in the park to Hidden Lake. There were so many people, so I thought I wasn't going to like it. Once we passed the main viewpoint that overlooks Hidden Lake, the crowd thinned out a lot. We continued on down to the lake, and this part of the hike was so fun and beautiful.

The view of Hidden Lake from the overlook.

We kept on going down to the lake.

The lake was a lot bigger than what I was expecting.

We passed two of the cutest baby deer on our way to the lake. They still had their cute little spots.

I was wondering where their mama was, and then we walked right past her.

The lake from the shore.

We sat right down in it to cool off.

There were chipmunks and squirrels everywhere. 

I had done a lot of reading about hikes in the park. I knew there was a big mountain, called Reynolds that people climb. It was for experienced climbers, which we're not, but I also read that if you head out that way, since it's not an 'official' park hike, you'll lose the crowds, most likely see mountain goats and big horn sheep, and get spectacular views from the saddle, without even having to do the scary climb. It seemed like a no brainer, so we set off in that direction. The trail to the first saddle was really cool, with beautiful views. 

Part of the trail leading to the first saddle.

We made it!

We stopped and talked to a couple on their way back from climbing Reynolds. They told us to keep going to the second saddle (we didn't even know there was a second one). They showed us a ridge called Dragon's Tail, and said it has the most spectacular views. We looked toward the second saddle and saw that it was some steep side hilling. I told Mark to just wait there for me, and I would cross and check it out, but he decided to carry on.

That ridge line above the snow patch is Dragon's Tail.

The view of Hidden Lake from the first saddle.

Crossing the first saddle.

Compare the next two pictures, and you can see which of us has a genuine fear of heights and which doesn't just by our stance. 😆

I'm super surprised he decided to keep going. 

I'm also surprised he agreed to turn around and take my picture.

Looking off the second saddle.

A view of the lake from way up high.

I was loving every second of this!

This is Dragon's Tail. It doesn't look too bad, but there were a few sketchy spots. It reminded me a lot of Angles Landing. I decided to go a little ways up it to see how it was.

Looking back at Mount Reynolds. I can't believe people climb that.

The view off the back side was amazing. I saw a couple glaciers, and some beautiful lakes.

This was the view that dropped my jaw. A stunning lake surrounded by endless peaks. It was amazing!

Here's the last of my play by play videos. I was a little shy of the end of the ridge you can make it too, but I called it quits. I had really shaky legs. I'm not sure if it was fear, excitement, or just a huge adrenalin rush. I say it in the video, but it was seriously one of the coolest moments I've ever had. 

When we finished the hike, we were refilling water, and getting ready to start the next one,  when we heard someone talking about a heard of sheep across the street. We walked over, and sure enough, there they were.

Mount Oberlin:

We finished off Friday with a 3.5 mile hike as far as we were comfortable going up Mount Oberlin.

Mount Oberlin.

A view across the pass to the road and the Highline Trail.

We saw fresh bear poop on this one, and a spot where a bear was digging for rodents. It was a lot higher up than I would expect a bear to be. We were already above the tree line at this point.

This was the saddle, and as far as Mark was going to go. It was climbing and scrambling from this point on.

I kept going a little farther.
If you look closely to the left in this picture, you can see the Logan Pass where we started from. 

I climbed up a part between two rocks and then from that point on I got in my own head. I kept thinking that maybe I wouldn't be able to climb down the same way, and I would have no way to tell Mark I was stuck. I kept going a little farther, and then got to a section where I would have had to go up some pretty big rocks. I called it quits there. The going up would be fine, but I always worry about the coming back down, especially by myself. I met up with a couple that said I could go the rest of the way up with them, but I knew Mark was waiting for me, and I was already a little nervous by that point. I promised myself that once I started feeling uncomfortable I would turn back, and I did. The couple waited for me to get down the part between the rocks that I was worried about, and I did just fine. This was all good practice for the first few Idaho 12ers I'm gonna try.

A selfie before I went back down to the saddle. You can see the visitor's center at the pass.

It was dusk when we got back to the parking lot, so the sheep were out wandering around again.

They are pretty cool looking!

We drove a few miles farther along the Going to the Sun Road, to the place where we would start our hike the next morning. We were exhausted from a long day, and over 25 miles of hiking, so it didn't take us long at all to fall asleep.

Siyeh Pass-St. Mary Lake and Falls-Virginia Falls:

We combined our two hikes on Saturday so we wouldn't have to move our car and fight for a parking spot. We hiked up one valley, over the Siyeh Pass, and down another valley to the ending spot. Then we just added a mile and a haft of walking along St. Mary Lake until we got to the trailhead for St. Mary and Virginia Falls. We finished with 15.5 miles, and took the shuttle back to our car.

The start of the hike was through the woods like we're used to doing.

We thought we were going up and over that saddle right behind Mark, but we ended up climbing a lot more to the right to get to the Siyeh Pass, which was amazing.

The valley we came up.

The last section of trail to the pass.

The sun was just in the wrong spot to get a good picture off the front of the pass.

The way we were going down was good for pictures though.

We were hiking out down the valley to the lake you can barely see in this picture.

Behind us is the big mountain we hiked around. I think it's called Going to The Sun Mountain.

Baring Falls

St. Mary's Lake was gorgeous. The color reminded me of Delta Lake in the Tetons, but on a much larger area. Unfortunately, there had been a fire around the lake, so the shoreline was pretty barren with a lot of dead trees now. So sad!

St. Mary's Falls

I couldn't get over the color of the water in the park. It was amazing!

Virginia Falls was incredible. The hike between the two falls was just along the water with a whole bunch of other smaller waterfalls.

One of the coolest waterfalls I've been to.

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That concludes our Glacier hiking. We took the shuttle back to our car, saw the rest of the Going to The Sun Road, made one more stop for souvenirs, and headed home. We stopped a few hours down the road to sleep, and finished the drive home on Sunday. It was such a great trip! Glacier lived up to all of my expectations, except that we didn't see a grizzly bear. 😁 We hope to go back again someday to see the other parts of the park. I love our weekend road trip adventures, and we both really needed this one.

Our next National Park adventure is already in the works for February, and I'm super excited about it. Stay tuned....