Glacier National Park - July 2007

Greta and I took a week off to visit Glacier National Park with our friend Kevin Richardson. The trip began bright and early with a drive to Portland to pick up Kevin and then out to Kalispell, Montana to visit Jen McCarter. It was nice seeing Jen and meeting their two year old son Sammy (her husband Carsten was working in the Bob Marshall Wilderness). We caught up that evening and made some loose plans for our trip to the park.

July 15^th
Sunday morning we tucked into Jen’s breakfast vittles and headed out to the west entrance of the park. A stop at the Apgar Visitor Center provided us with plenty of maps and brochures and good feedback from a helpful National Park Service ranger. We decided to start our hiking at the Avalanche Creek trailhead, a busy but rewarding hike into the beautiful Avalanche Lake. Jen was a trooper hauling Sammy up the 2 mile grade with 500 feet of elevation gain. We cooled off at the lake and had lunch while taking in the views of Bearhat Mountain and Mount Brown.

Avalanche Lake

Sammy

Avalanche Creek

Root ball of fallen Cedar

After the hike, we said goodbye to Jen and Sammy and found a campsite at the Avalanche Creek campground. Dinner was cooked while playing our first of many games of Yahtzee. With our hunger satisfied, we took in a ranger-led interpretive discussion of the National Park Service's history. As the heat of the day finally subsided, we settled in for a good night’s sleep.

July 16^th
Monday morning we took the park's new shuttle service up Going-to-the-Sun Road to the Logan Pass Visitor Center. Our trip for the day was the Garden Wall section of the Highline trail from Logan Pass to the Loop on Going-to-the-Sun Road. The hike was 11.6 miles long, with an elevation gain of 830 feet and loss of 3,026 feet. The hike provided us with our first wildlife exposure to mountain goats and hoary marmots and plenty of wildflowers. The views across and down the valley were spectacular, though hazy due to forest fires in the Bob Marshall Wilderness to the south.

Mountain goat

Kevin and Greta hiking under cliff with Reynolds Mountain in the background

Wildflowers

Monkeyflower

Valley view

Greta and Kevin

Hoary marmot

Granite Park Chalet