Travel Diary - West to Montana, Idaho & Wyoming
Hi, Everyone.... these entries are straight from my travel journal from our last trip to Glacier National Park. This is a two part blog. Next travel blog will be from Glacier to Wyoming. Enjoy!
Day 1: Louisville-> Chicago -> Wisconsin -> Minnesota
Travel.....Left after a half day at work, drove until 12:30am. Camped in dispersed camping in Minnesota.
Day 2: Minnesota -> Montana
Travel....Long day of driving. Left at 7:30am. Most of the day spent in North Dakota. Stopped a short while at Theodore Roosevelt National Park but chose not to drive back into the park. Took some photos but generally kept the visit short. Stopped for the night at Lewis and Clark National Forest near Great Falls, MT
Day 3: Glacier National Park arrival
Woke up with water pump for our sink not working. No water coming from faucet. Not sure of issue just yet. Also had a fun time changing the tire on the road around Sluice Boxes State Park. Looks like a steel belt was separating. We entered Glacier with the intent of finally taking it easy for the day. Camped at Rising Sun Campground. Due to bear activity, it was a hard sided camp. No tents. Took some shots around the road but really didn't do anything too crazy.
Day 4: Glacier National Park
Woke early to secure a backcountry permit at Many Glacier. Bad news: our original plans are trash. Good news: we are hiking the HIghline Trail. One bucket list hike to cross off our list. By 7:15am our trail and camps were reserved. From Many Glacier we drove to Avalanche Creek to find a campsite. Majority of it was filled by 9:00am. Claimed a nice shady spot and decided to explore Waterton National Park in Canada. It's an easy 50 miles out of St. Mary. Completely beautiful drive. Waterton is extra special. I really think it’s more beautiful than Glacier. Stopped in at the Prince of Wales Hotel to explore the grounds. The hotel looks like a fairy tale. After many photos we traveled into the super tiny, very cute town. Visited an Tamarack Outfitters and had some lunch. Decided to head back before it got too dark. Back at camp, we got the rest of our packs together to get ready for our hike.
Day 5: Glacier National Park, Backcountry Hike
Alarm went off at 5:40am for us to break camp and head to Logan Pass. Driving Going-To-The-Sun Road that early in the morning is recommended. Very empty, very peaceful. Logan Pass had a few cars in the lot with other hikers getting ready for the day. The morning was very cold. We began on the Highline Trail. It's a very busy trail, passing at least 40-50 people walking toward Granite Park Chalet. About 2-3 miles into the hike we encountered a grizzly bear walking slowly up the trail. Everyone stopped to stare and wait for it to walk away. I finally got tired of waiting for him to decide to move and decided to make noise to get him to move. After 7 miles, we arrived at Granite Park Chalet. There are around 20 rooms there and a dining area. True to its name, it’s fully made of granite. A couple miles past the chalet we came on our campground for the night. Views were minimal at this camp, but overall, a nice spot. We set up and decided to hike back to the Garden Wall Trail, which overlooks Grinnell Glacier. The hike is less than a mile but has a 970 foot elevation gain. Pretty tough little hike, but the views are worth it. You can see the entirety of the glacier. After eating a snack and taking in the views, we headed back to our camp for dinner and some well needed rest. Estimated mileage today: 15 miles.
Day 6: Glacier National Park, Backcountry Hike
Awoke to a quiet camp. Today we travel to Flattop Mountian. Let's just I wouldn't make this my first hike to do for fun. This was switchback hell. There were 4 straight miles of switchbacks. I never felt that we were getting to the top of anything. It took a good 4-5 hours to go 4 miles. The camp had seen better days. It looks like it had been through a fire and was just starting to get regrowth. There were barely any views from this camp. We did meet a couple of really nice hikers while up there. Had some good conversation with our dinner that night. All in all, we've camped at better spots. Turned in early to get a jump on our day tomorrow.
Day 7: Glacier National Park, Backcountry Hike
DOWNHILL! What took us 4 hours going up, took 2 to go down. The weather turned hot. And with no wind or shade, it made for an uncomfortable afternoon. We began this hike with temperatures in the 20's. We end the hike with temps in the high 70's! Instead of walking back up to The Loop, we took a side trail to Packers Roost where we hitched a ride with a ranger to The Loop. From there we boarded a very tight, crowded shuttle. I'm sure all the clean, freshly bathed riders really appreciated our presence. The return to Logan Pass found Brakayla still in great condition. We loaded our gear into her while about 30 cars circled us in the parking lot. Seriously, that parking lot is insane in the afternoon. We got our bearings and headed to Whitefish, MT. The town is super cute and reminds me of Jackson Hole, WY. This is the one night where we allowed ourselves an expensive hotel room. We took that well-deserved shower finally. Visited Great Northern Brewery for a beer and got a good meal. We also took advantage of the rooftop hot tub our hotel had. A bed felt good that night.
-Bink