Day 22: Glacier National Park
Trip Start
Jun 21, 2008
1
14
42
Trip End
Ongoing
Glacier National Park,
Montana,
United States
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Had hot breakfast buffet at Hampton Inn. Yum. Arrived at Glacier NP early - stopped at the Apgar Visitor Center for a bit. Picked up some maps. Then headed to set-up camp.
Walked back to Apgar Village to look around. We were nervous walking on the trail because we are not comfortable around any type of bear. No worries, though, we made it. Caught the Park Shuttle to McDonald Lake Lodge. Thinking about eating there for our anniversary tomorrow.
Everyone is at Mullett Lake today. I hope everyone arrived safely.
The Rangers say bears are in the area, we have to keep everything in the car and we tried to make lots of noise or clap while we hiked today.
First time to see ground squirrels, very interesting. They live in holes underground like prairie dogs.
Day 23 - Our 7 Year Anniversary! - July 13, 2008 - Sunday
Today was a busy day. Got up and went to a church service at the campground amphitheater. Very nice. Hope to go more often.
Then we called for a shuttle - luckily waited only 10 minutes - shuttle took us all the way up to Logan Pass on the "going to the Sun" road. Very cool! The views were amazing! Passed the Continental Divide.
We walked the trail to Hidden Lake Lookout (1.5 miles one way). A lot of the trail was still under snow. It was tough to walk on. Some people had skis and 2 people had snow shoes. We forgot our hiking poles - that would have made it a little easier. Oh well.
Then we hiked farther on down to Hidden Lake (1.5 miles one way). We saw 2 mountain goats and a kid, a marmot and ground squirrels. They were very close and did not seem to be bothered by us at all. We walked a little further and stopped for lunch on a rock and the nanny and kid walked right by us while we were eating. Made me a little nervous. Michael took tons of pictures of the goats.
We walked further down to the lake. Talked to a gentleman on his way up who pointed out a billy sitting in the shade of some small trees further down. We kept going down. Walked past the billy and stopped to take some pictures. Heard a noise and turned around. A nanny goat and the billy goat were walking out of the trees. The billy stopped and stared at us. We moved away from him and stopped, he moved closer and stopped, we moved farther away and stopped, he moved closer and stopped, we went back up the hill. He made us very nervous.
After we left he sat down in the snow where we had been standing. Later 2 skiers were hiking back up along the trail - when they approached the trail - he stood up and watched them - they stopped a bit but kept walking. Thankfully the goat let them pass. Scary.
We took the shuttle back to the campground, cleaned up a bit, changed clothes, then drove to Lake McDonald Lodge for our Anniversary dinner. Very good. We tried 2 local beers; Wild Huckleberry and Going to the Sun Pale Ale. Both were tasty. Then for dessert we had Huckleberry ice cream. A sweet end to a full day.
Day 24 - Glacier NP - July 14, 2008 - Monday
Got up, took our time, sat around the campsite, called our health insurance company. At noon we headed up to Avalanche Lake on the shuttle and hike out to the lake. Very pretty. 4 waterfalls fell into the lake. We had lunch on the rocks around the lake.
For dinner we cooked over the fire - potatoes in aluminum foil, corn on the cob in the husk, and sausage on the skewers. It was good. The potatoes were a tad over done but no too bad. The fire does not take as long as I think. The corn could have cooked longer, but the sausage was perfect.
Day 25 - Glacier NP - July 15, 2008, Tuesday
Got up early and headed to the other side of the park to the Two Medicine Lake area. Parked in the picnic area and had breakfast and coffee. Then headed out for a hike around the lake. Nice, flat hike. Along the way we took short trails up to 3 different waterfalls. We were hoping to see moose, but no luck. We also walked across a swinging bridge - one at a time the sign said. I got a video of Michael going across.
After the hike we headed to the two Medicine Lake store and bough Huckleberry Tea and Huckleberry coffee. We plan to send the coffee to Dylan for his birthday.
On the way out we did see 1 black bear in the road. He ran off into the woods before I got the camera out. Got a picture anyway, but you cannot see him well.
Also stopped at the Continental Divide again.
Day 26 - Leaving Glacier NP, National Bison Range, and Livingston, MT - July 16, 2008 - Wednesday
Packed up and left Glacier NP.
Around 10:00am we passed a sign for the National Bison Range and decided to stop. Definitely glad we did. We were able to drive through the range on a 19-mile loop road and saw a herd of bison crossing the road right as we slowly drove by. Over a hundred bison, wow! They looked at us and we looked back. We were nervous that they might ram the car if startled.
We drove through our first real rainstorm on the trip so far. The ran came down hard and the wind pushed against the car mightily. The winding road did not make things easier. Stopped in Bozeman for dinner at Applebee's. $7 left on the gift card (frown).
Stopped in Livingston at the Comfort Inn about 6:30pm. Michael uploaded pictures and I walked across the parking lot to Albertsons to grocery shop for our stay in Yellowstone.
