Bottom line, this recreational post is published on my business site because I have nowhere else to put it. However if you ever wondered why Ripples of Hope Counseling LLC is closed for business 3-4 weeks of the year, here's a taste of what I'm probably off doing :).
We were at GNP 5 years (and a month) ago for our honeymoon, hence "round 2".
Day 1 - Monday - warm-up and scout day
Parking anywhere on the west side during busy season, at least both times we've been there, is a bear (pun intended). We drove all the way up to Logan pass to confirm this was still true considering 5 years passing and the implementation of parking passes 6am to 3pm. The lower lot was full and the proper parking lot was absurd. We drove through the parking lot as clean as we could then immediately headed back down the mountains for the day. Not only had we learned valuable information about the parking situation, but the view with a cloud hanging low over the valley was something I had not seen last time. It was truly spectacular.
Now committed to an early wake time tomorrow morning, we set our sights on some picturesque views (aren't they all though!) and some easy hikes. We landed on the John's Lake Loop (which was not a loop due to construction) mostly because we could park near the trailhead and had twice failed to find parking at Avalanche.
It takes you along the shoreline of McDonald Creek. We ate lunch on a waterfall. We saw a deer on our way back to the road.
The trail to John's Lake was one we had not done before. Wooded, we saw another deer and the Lilly pad strewn lake.
We finished the day with the lucky ability to park at the loop. We hiked a bit at the bottom of the loop trail, around 1/2 a mile one way. When we did it 5 years ago we were exhausted and the area had recently experienced a wildfire. It had changed a lot from what we remembered.
Day 2 - Tuesday - Highline and Glacier overlook
Honestly, the universe would be hard pressed to make this a better day. We had a smooth early morning at the VRBO, entrance to the park was a breeze, the drive up to Logan Pass was scenic as always and different without the cloud in the valley from yesterday. Parking was a tiny glitch, we had to park in the lower lot and walk up (literally) to the visitor center.
Of all the bathrooms I've used in the park (and I've used a lot of them because ahem Aunt Flo seems to fancy GNP as much as we do), Logan has the cleanest. People complain about no power - therefore no lights - but I'll take clean and spacious over brightly lit any day. The water fill-up station is a gem too.
And we were off!
5 years ago, on our honeymoon, we vastly underestimated this trail. We did not have appropriate provisions nor did we prep (sunscreen) or set our minds accordingly. When we got to the glacier overlook, a .8 mile steep (close to 1000 feet elevation gain) up and back trail spur, we made it maybe 500 feet on the trail before Sam - for the betterment of his health and therefore the rest of our trip and our lives - made the call to turn back and high-tail to the chalet where we procured enough provisions to make it down the backside/Loop Trail.
We were better prepared this time (even though less physically fit), hauling in over a gallon of water between bottles and his pack (thanks Dan), 100spf sunscreen, energy bars, and a stamina-reserving mindset.
PS - Sam drinks A LOT of water and has an unpleasant attitude when dehydrated. Also, we're slow. My point is that the average hiker who takes the average time to plow through this trail probably doesn't need as much water as we hauled. We did not haul out much water though, at least not externally. And it was cool and breezy versus scorching hot so I'd say we (Sam) made a good educated estimate of water requirement.
Above is the south side of Haystack Butte. We started out with the semi-early crowd around 7:30 am. We eventually found a happy and quiet spacing along the garden wall.
I barely try to finesse phone cameras. Pictures can't do justice for these landscape views anyway. My phone really struggled with the pre-sunlight lighting though. The sunlight inching down the mountains was gorgeous.
We ate brunch at some boulders near Haystack. I applied sunscreen and we were off again. There were parts we remembered differently and a couple of parts we didn't remember at all, for the most part it was the same trail with gorgeous views 5 years later. Lots of ground squirrels and a flock of fowl were our animal encounters on the way out.
The North side of Haystack Butte:
Lake McDonald in between the mountains and the foreshadowing clouds:
Sam kept saying "around this next corner we'll see the chalet." By the fourth corner he took the liberty of making fun of himself for saying it lol. Eventually, we rounded a corner and DID see the chalet along with the trail spur:
We took a longer rest and food break at the bottom of the glacier-overlook trail spur. Finally, we fixed and snugged pack straps and started the ascent.
I credit my childhood of climbing hills and cow trails for my climbing stamina. Realistically it is something else more recent. Wherever the credit belongs, it gave me the opportunity to enjoy (nervously at times) breaks on the way up. I wouldn't say I'm afraid of heights but the terrain mixed with depth perception tests mixed with the height was unsettling.
The trail in the pictures below is not the one we came in on. I'd have to dangle my phone over the edge to get a picture of that!
As Sam drank down the hydro pack and his other drink bottles emptied, I had begun to resent carrying the four water bottles in my bag. That is until we neared the top of the glacier-overlook. I enjoy hiking, not rock climbing, especially on a ledge between a rock wall and a sheer rocky cliff. That trail got straight-up janky towards the end. (No pics because I refuse to die documenting with anything but my eyes). Couple that with intense wind, like blow me over (or off a ledge) kind of wind and suddenly I wished I had more water bottles in my backpack.
We made it!
Grinnell Glacier above our heads, a smidge of The Salamander Glacier on the lower left, Gem Glacier unpictured (I think). I don't know if I could have found an angle to capture Gem in any photo from this side. I didn't try hard because, wind.
Thank you to the kind gentleman from Indianapolis who graciously took our picture even though it meant standing directly in the wind and we bombarded him as soon as he finished the steep ascent.
The WIND! It would have taken serious and strategic effort for me to stand on the apex rock. My nerves were still rattled from the rocky top of the trail and I was perfectly satisfied with this pose for my top-of-the-mountain picture. My hair will wildly flow in a gentle breeze but it takes a manly wind to move Sam's beard as pictured.
The top was equally janky going down but after that it was quite pleasant.
Having had a miserable experience down the backside (Loop trail) last time, having experienced all of it we felt we needed yesterday, and not wanting to mess with the shuttle back to our car meant we chose to go out the way we came in.
I really enjoyed it for the most part, the views coming from the other direction. The rain clouds started setting in omitting the view and dropping the temperature noticeably.
We got to see some bighorn sheep. Thanks sheep for not charging us.
The rain ponchos eventually came out. Head tipped down in my rain poncho, hands inside it when I didn't feel I needed them out for balance, and zero landscape visibility, all I could think about was getting to the trailhead for the last mile. A significant improvement from last time when the last four miles felt like torture.
I went to the bathroom, then volunteered to get the car from the lower parking lot and bring it up to Sam. The rain downpour hit as we were throwing our things in the car!
Sam's phone said 47000 steps. I've never felt less guilty about eating a whole pouch of stovetop alfredo noodles than I did that night.
That night it snowed. Again, we couldn't have timed it better and couldn't have been much better prepared, other than a few more training hikes :). I'm glad Sam took me up on the idea a couple years ago to follow through on our tall-talk from our honeymoon, and ultimately that he planned this trip and came out with me at all.
Day 3 - Recovery and Weather day
No fluff, we were both embarrassingly sore.
It snowed at Logan Pass and the surrounding area!!! Sam drove me up to see the snow. My day was made. And we did it all before the road eventually closed. Perfection.
The snow got the waterfalls flowing all along the Going to the Sun Road which we enjoyed on the way down. We ate lunch in West Glacier, drove to a tack store about 15 minutes away, and vegged in the vrbo the rest of the day. I wish the rain and/or the temperature had let up a little so that I could have sat on the porch, but it was a really nice cabin to hole up in for the day.
Day 4 - East Side and Waterfalls
We were not signed up for text alerts or tuned into radio alerts, so upon entrance to the park we discovered that Going to the Sun road was closed for snow. Everybody was at Apgar welcome center waiting for it to open. We said 'to heck with that' and drove around to Two Medicine on the East side. It is cool to see the change in terrain and last time we saw a lot of wildlife including a moose over there. We did not have the same luck this time.
We'd had our eyes peeled for a bear all week, this cow in the road was as close as we came.
We ate at a little restaurant called Park Cafe in St Mary. The pizza, strawberry rhubarb pie, and huckleberry lemonade were delicious. PS: the pizza was even delicious lopsided after we set it at an angle in the back seat.
The road was back open. We went to see St Mary Lake and the recent wildfire aftermath. We figured we'd investigate parking at Logan and assess our hiking legs for Hidden Lake trail. Parking was plentiful. Turned out that was because the trails were still closed for hiking due to snow. It's beautiful just from the visitor's center.
The snow had increased the flow of waterfalls yesterday. The melting snow got them pouring. See day 3 on the left and day 4 on the right.
Day 5 - Last day - Hungry Horse Dam and Hidden Lake
My tack shopping plans were busted by odd business hours. So after hotel breakfast in Kalispell and messaging the vrbo owner about possibly picking up my entire toiletry bag that I left behind the door in the bathroom (sigh), we headed to Hungry Horse Dam.
I wasn't sure what to expect but was fully prepared to drive out there for a self-guided landmark view. There is actually a complete, educational, and enjoyable little welcome center with museum exhibits. The people were friendly, there was plentiful parking at 8am, and there were public restrooms.
I had a great time reading all of the captions and explanations. It was absolutely kid-friendly and I would take my kids if I went back. This time I intentionally enjoyed putting my sole focus on reading and looking at what I wanted to and taking my sweet time.
I was so relaxed in the moment that I didn't even get a picture of the dam wall. I did get this shot of the water (South fork of the Flathead River) and the overflow drain.
That evening I got my toiletry bag back, thanks vrbo owner. After visiting the dam, we went putt putt golfing at Golfing to the Sun Mini Golf. Putt putt is our tradition. We got lunch in West Glacier.
Then we got in line to show our parking pass and head up the Going to the Sun Road one last time. The line is shorter if you arrive earlier. I will say two things about the parking pass:
One, thank you to the park staff and rangers who are checking passes and doing that particular job at the park. I gotta believe it is not why you dove into your career.
And two, for the love of all that is good, even if you are unfamiliar with or scared to death of Google Wallet, just download your parking pass to the dang app when it prompts. There is no phone service, signal, anything at the checkpoint. The screenshot of the QR code that made you feel so comfortable is not satisfactory. If you're used to your phone usually storing that much search history, it won't this time. Save yourself and the people behind you and just have the pass in Google Wallet ready to show the official. (My suggestion is made based on information personally obtained from both not-using and using Google Wallet.)
More snow remained than I expected. As always the drive up to Logan Pass was beautiful. When we got to the pass, parking was scarce/nonexistent. Sam went to the bathroom as I trolled the lot in our rental, then we switched. Thank goodness the car that looked like our rental stuck at the end of a standstill line of cars was not actually ours, because Sam was in the right place at the right time and managed to pull into a parking spot as someone was leaving. Score.
I was mostly recovered from Highline at this point. It's sort of crazy to see the trail on the side of the mountain and be able to say "I was there three days ago."
Five years ago Hidden Lake trail was closed past the overlook because of bears on the trail. Sam said it was closed to his quads today. It is hidden and it is beautiful from a distance.
We made our way back down to the car for the last time. The grassy stretches between the lake and the car seem like they would be crawling with wildlife. Truth is they probably are, you just can't see it. The ground squirrels next to the trail had a distinct song to accompany our hike/stairsteps down.
The clear water and the rock beds everywhere we went in the park mesmerized me. I had an inkling to go paddle boarding on Lake McDonald but it never worked out. I told Sam I wanted to put my feet in the lake before we left. He sighed and said "I knew you were going to say that."
Thanks babe :)
I believe we will be back to Glacier National Park. I did however agree to our 10 year anniversary trip being somewhere else.
Praise God for the sights I'll forever remember and safety so that I can tell others about them joyfully. Thank you to my husband for orchestrating and committing to this anniversary vacation. Thank you to my parents for watching the kids and the farm.
Finally, thank YOU the reader for reading this blog. I hope you enjoyed my selfie filled summary of our 5 year anniversary trip in Glacier National Park and the surrounding area. It saved my Facebook feed from a long ugly hunk of text.
Until next time!
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