Glacier National Park, Pt. 3

Glacier National Park, Pt. 3

Yep, it took three parts to cover this vast and beautiful National Park.  We are hopefully helping you guys that read this to plan your future vacation out this way.  We will be back in 2020, there is so much to see and do, even two weeks was hard to do.  With the crowds picking up, getting to do some of the popular hikes can be a challenge, it means getting up early, getting to the parking lot at the trailhead around 8 am and getting your hike done.  Even then the crowds are building, but your not stuck circulating the parking lot looking for a spot.  Glacier has a shuttle but even many of those stops inside the park have very little parking near them, unless you go the the huge parking lots at either end and ride the shuttle for the 90 minutes it might take to get to one of the middle stops.  We chose the alarm clock route and faced the colder morning to get our hike’s on….

First up was the hike to hidden lake starting from Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun road.  The upper parts of the hike are still covered in snow as you can see and even at 8 o’clock in the morning there were an almost full parking lot…

who needs walking path signs, just follow all the people…

Hidden Lake, still covered in snow and ice in the middle of July so I suspect they get a short summer before the snow starts flying….

Next up on the to do list was a trip to see the neighbors up North, in Waterton, Alberta, Canada….It is just a hour drive North and the Canada park is adjacent to Glacier, and they share in the duties to manage the two parks.  

The Neighbor’s Park however is mostly closed due to a severe wildfire last year that came close to the edge of town, you can see the damage to the hillsides.  The small box in the lower right points to the small town of Watertown right on the lake….

Funny thing is it stayed on the Canadian side of the border which is the line at the bottom of the picture….below are some firefighters sitting on the beach in Watertown watching it burn the hillside down to the water.

The fire burned about 38% of the park, 80% of the hiking trails in the park were effected and it is quite amazing that they were able to save the town…the town is nice and has a New England feel, nice shops and restaurants.  Definitely worth the trip when visiting Glacier National Park.

Prince of Wales Hotel, sitting on a bluff overlooking the Lake.


Ok, you know mom is nearby
3 cubs by the road
Mom decided to see if it was safe to cross

The last day in the area we decided to do the hike to Grinnell lake that is at the foot of the Grinnel Glacier, about a 7 mile round trip and the hike did not disappoint….the starting point was Many Glaciers Hotel…

Grinnel Lake, feed from the glacier above, it feeds Lake Joshehine and then Swiftcurrent Lake.

Canadian bear looks just like his American relatives….

Well that about does it for Glacier National Park, an amazing place with plenty of wildlife and scenery to suit everyone.  The time of year was perfect for the wild flowers, pictures don’t come close.

We are off to The Banff and Lake Louise area in Canada for the next week….

 

3 thoughts on “Glacier National Park, Pt. 3

  1. These photos are unreal… so many postcard perfect images in one place. But the pictures of the fire on the Canadian side just break my heart… It’ll be decades before it returns to the way it was. So sad…. Anyway, thanks for the helpful tour. We are very much looking forward to exploring that park and we’ll definitely plan to give ourselves 2 or 3 weeks to do it. Sounds like that’s the best way to see everything without feeling the need to murder anyone.

  2. Absolutely gorgeous pics. However, both Tom and I said we have no desire to hike in snow. Too cold and too slippery.
    We are considering going there next year. Definitely want to go to Lake Louise as well.
    Take care . Thanks for keeping us in the loop. Love you guys.

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