Stamps Like Champs: Glacier National Park

It's been a while since my last blog and the winter doldrums (and this disgusting mini-blizzard/all day long sleet crap we got today in Maryland) have me missing my happy place. We've been to Glacier National Park in Montana three times. You can read about the most recent time (summer 2016) here, here, and here, so this blog will recap the first two times we were there.

It's no secret that Glacier National Park is my favorite, and I don't think any other park will ever change that. It's not just its breathtakingly beautiful scenery, but (and this is hard to explain), I feel a connection to it. If you ever have a chance to go there, which I highly recommend, you will not be able to use your phone. You'll be lucky if you can connect to the weak wifi in the lodges and there are no TVs in the rooms. You are forced to take the park in without any distraction and it's a wonderful, liberating feeling. Even though all three times Steve and I have been there we have been "Go! Go! Go!" every waking moment, I truly do relax. Except for when we ran into a bear on the trail - that was terrifying. But I call it my happy place, because simply put, I don't worry about anything there (other than bears, which I already covered). John Muir once said about Glacier that it is "the greatest care-killing scenery on the continent." Mr. Muir was no liar!

The first time we went to Glacier was in August 2014. We went with our friends Jamie and Craig who are also co-workers of mine. This was so fun going on a trip with them because Jamie and Craig are up to doing any kind of adventure and they do it without any fear which is inspiring to me because I'm a very timid person. Jamie had just turned 30 so we kicked off the trip with a yummy dinner and beer in small glasses at Tamarack Brewing Company, which is about an hour outside of the park. I will never forget Craig's face when he saw just how many beers in small glasses made up the two samplers. We now make it a tradition to stop here every time we go to Glacier.

Tamarack Brewing - there are two samplers here, and it was a lot of beer

Craig's reaction to the beers!

Our first glimpse of the park was just after sunset at Lake McDonald, by the Lake McDonald Lodge. This was the first moment I laid eyes on the park and it did not disappoint. The four of us skipped the red and turquoise rocks for a little while into Lake McDonald and then headed to our hotel for the evening.

Our first look at Lake McDonald (it was very windy!)

The next morning at the sign (note the beginning of Craig & Jamie climbing things)! :-)

We started the next day with our first hike in the park to Running Eagle Falls, also called Trick Falls. Running Eagle Falls is a waterfall that comes out of rock year round, but early in the spring season, the snow melt also causes a temporary waterfall over top of it. Sadly, we've never seen the "trick" part of it, but we will someday. Running Eagle Falls is a very easy hike to do - it's flat and very short (half-mile one-way at most). Here's a quick funny story about what I meant by Craig and Jamie having no fear. Steve and I are very content to stare at a waterfall from a platform. Craig and Jamie take it to a new level by navigating the rocks to get up close and personal with the waterfall! We found ourselves throughout the trip asking where Craig and Jamie were and inevitably we'd find them scaling a waterfall somehow.

The group at Running Eagle Falls

Running Eagle Falls - and Craig & Jamie climbing (I do like how they give scale perspective though!)

After Running Eagle, we tried to do a few hikes in the Two Medicine area of the park, but most of the trails were closed due to bear activity. We settled with getting some huckleberry froyo at the gift shop. Steve dropped us off at the Rising Sun Motor Inn on the east side of the park so we could drop off our stuff and so Steve could head up to Waterton, Canada, to get our boat tickets for the next day. Steve was the lucky one and saw a grizzly on the way back to Glacier, but all Craig, Jamie, and I saw was a deer. Craig, Jamie, and I went to Sunrift Gorge and hiked to Baring Falls while Steve was on his adventure.

Craig & Jamie climbing on things at Sunrift Gorge

Craig & Jamie climbing to Baring Falls (again, I like the scale perspective)

The next day we drove up to Waterton, Canada, to catch a boat that took us back into the US so we could get to Goat Haunt in Glacier. The reason we did this trip was so we could get the Goat Haunt stamp and go through the least stressful customs process ever - we literally signed a piece of paper, showed our passport, and then we hiked to Kootenai Lakes where we were supposed to see a bunch of moose, but we weren't that lucky. The hike itself was really nice and a very flat 3 miles. We enjoyed our lunch at the lake and then headed back to do another quick hike to Rainbow Falls, which are really more like a cascade. It's another easy hike though and only about a mile and a half round-trip. After that we boarded the boat to head back home. On the way home, there were reports of seven different bear sightings on one of the scenic drives. Steve, Jamie, and Craig wanted nothing more than to see a bear, so we did the drive and saw nothing but deer again.

The group at Kootenai Lakes

Waterton Lake

Rainbow Falls

The last day there, we went to the Many Glacier area where we took the boat ride on Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine to cut off some mileage for the Grinnell Lake hike. That hike is another easy hike and about 3 miles round-trip (I think...). Even if you don't want to do the hike, at least take the boat ride on Lake Josephine. Lake Josephine is a hidden spot in the park, but so pretty. Also, you have a pretty good view of one of the very few remaining glaciers - Salamander Glacier. Hurry up and get there if you want to see a glacier because they'll be gone by 2020 (give or take a year or two).

Grinnell Lake

Lake Josephine - Salamander Glacier to the right

We ended our time in Glacier by driving from the east side of the park all the way back to Spokane, but we did so by driving all of Going-to-the-Sun Road, which is the most beautiful stretch of 50-some miles of road I've ever seen. We made several stops along the way for pictures, including spending a lot of time in Logan Pass where we watched some bighorn sheep and mountain goats.

Black bear

Bighorn

Goats!

Fast forward a year when Steve and I flew to Seattle and drove all around Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. In that trip, we had to stop at my happy place for a few days. Our first full day in the park was supposed to be on the west side, but when we looked at the weather, we saw that it was supposed to rain the last day of our trip and we had a 10-mile round-trip hike to Iceburg Lake planned that day. So we changed our plans to hike to Iceburg Lake our first day while we had nice weather. We were fortunate to catch the ranger-led hike, which made me feel a little more comfortable with a crowd of about 20 and a ranger with us through grizzly country. The hike to Iceburg Lake is hard. The beginning and the end are uphill, but the middle is relatively flat. The nice thing is, on your five miles back, it's downhill or flat. Even though it's a tough hike, Iceburg Lake is definitely worth it, and the hike itself is an excellent taste of Glacier's beauty. After the hike, we had to have huckleberry ice cream...duh. :-)

On the Iceburg Lake hike

Iceburg Lake - it doesn't get a lot of sun year-round here, which is why there are mini iceburgs

The next day was probably my most favorite day in this park out of all three times we've been there. We got up early and went to Logan Pass to hike the trail to Hidden Lake Overlook. This is a 3-mile round-trip hike, but the way to the overlook is entirely uphill. The overlook itself is typical Glacier providing lackluster views (I hope you can see for yourself in the picture below that that sentence is laced with sarcasm). But while on the hike, we ran into a herd of mountain goats, with babies, that just let us watch them be mountain goats. I could have stayed there forever. When we got back to the parking lot we ran into a herd of bighorns which were fun to watch for a while too. We spent our last night in the park at the Many Glacier Hotel where Steve splurged and got us a room with a balcony overlooking my most favorite spot in the park. I highly recommend staying here for a night so you can take in the view. We enjoyed some wine for a little bit on our balcony until a storm came rolling through so we called it a night.

And that's Glacier, my happy place. If you're ever planning a trip here, let me know and I'll help you plan where to go...or I may just tag along.