Glacier National Park

I didn't think it would happen, but it has. My favorite National Park since I was a kid, Yosemite, must now share the title of "favorite" with Glacier National Park. (Now don't give me a hard time about my liberal use of the word "favorite"; I choose to have multiple favorites in many categories--ice cream flavors, cities, parks, etc. It doesn't make the term any less valuable in my mind.) Anyway, it's hard not to be crazy about Glacier. With scenery straight out of the imaginations of the romantic artists of the West, all I could do for the past few days was shake my head in awe. It really is that picturesque.

We arrived in Glacier after dark and set up camp at St. Mary campground. Plentiful signs (of the written type) warned of the Grizzly bears who liked to frequent the camp since it was pretty much situated in a berry patch. And, much to my dismay, signs (of the huge pile of bear scat variety) abounded in our campsite. "God Gideon, that looks fresh to me," I said. "Nah, that's not fresh," Gideon, the bear expert, reassured me. A few minutes later, our neighbor camper came to visit. We pointed out the berry-filled pile and she said, "Yeah, I know! That was from last night! I didn't even hear the bear!" I guess "fresh" is a relative term, huh? Somehow, I managed to sleep rather soundly through the night, despite the possibility of a bear visitor. Perhaps it was the big can of "bear spray" we had with us in the tent. Bear spray, for those of you who don't know, is a Grizzly bear strength pepper spray proven to deter an attacking bear. We had no bear visitors that night, but we did find new piles of scat lining the road out of the campground in the morning.


From the campground, we drove west along the "Going to the Sun Road", stopping at Logan Pass Visitor Center. Here we packed our lunch and prepared to hike to Hidden Lake. Gideon and I got into a heated discussion about the need to take the bear spray with us. Gideon didn't want to; I did. My feeling about it was, if we have it, we should take it. So what if it's kind of heavy. I would hate to run into an angry Grizzly Bear and have to ask him to hold off just a second while I run back to the car for the bear spray. We didn't end up taking it, so my plan was to use Gideon as a human shield if necessary. Lucky for him, we saw no bears.

What we did see was perhaps the most beautiful hike either of us have ever experienced. The trail wandered up through an alpine meadow to a lookout above Hidden Lake. There we were greeted by perhaps the most congenial mountain goat in the park. I am telling you, he smiled at me and showed me around! What a doll!


From the overlook, the trail wandered down an open mountainside to to the lake in the valley below. The water was a startling blue color, due to the glacial runoff that fed the lake. We spent a few hours hanging out on the shore. Gideon tried his hand at fly fishing. He sure looked good, but the fish were too damn smart for him. They watched him and his flies through the crystal-clear water and taunted him mercilessly. I think he still had fun, and that's all that really matters.
On the way back, we did a little "off-roading" and found ourselves an actual glacier. It's predicted that all of the glaciers in Glacier National Park will be gone by 2030. I'm glad we got to see one up close and personal. You can see it bit of it behind us in the photo below.

We set up camp for the night at a beautiful campground called Many Glacier. Here is a shot of me cooking dinner. Truth be told, Gideon does most of the cooking, so don't be too impressed with me. I just wanted to put the photo in so you could see our wonderful set up. The stove is my dad's and it is older than me. It works beautifully and has made our camping experience oh-so-much-more enjoyable. We are also using his (or his dad's) cutlery kit which has every utensil we could possibly need. Those two items, along with our new tent have made such a difference for us. Thanks Dad!


Today we went on another amazing hike to an even more beautiful lake, if that is even possible. The hike to the lake wasn't as scenic, wandering through the woods. Being in the woods required us to be more aware of the bears. We did bring along the bear spray this time and I got really good at making noise on the trail, as recommended by the park rangers. Every 50 feet or so, I yelled out something like, "Hey bear! Yo, bear! Wassup bear! Wanna peanut, bear?" Basically, anything to let bears know we were around. The last thing you want to do is surprise a Grizzly bear... I can't imagine why.
The end destination of our hike, Lake Grinnell, was stunning. We spent a good while exploring the woods and relaxing, and I even got in a little yoga. It was too windy for Gideon to fish, but that was okay since there were no fish in Lake Grinnell.

After our hike, we made the journey from the eastern side of the park to the western side of the park. Normally, this would simply require following the Going to the Sun Road from one side to the other, but since a 10 mile stretch right in the middle of it was closed for repairs, we had to loop around the bottom of the park, which added about 100 miles to the journey. Not a big deal, since it was a pretty drive. We ended our time at Glacier by exploring Lake MacDonald Lodge, a small-scale lodge on the shore of Lake MacDonald. One day, if I play my cards right, I may get lucky enough to stay in some of these incredible, old-fashioned lodges, but I have a feeling I have many more nights in a tent before that happens. And that is fine by me.