Tom's National Park Adventure

I didn’t realize the date until I just typed it. Makes me think about how lucky I am to be here doing this on a day that so many paid the ultimate price for all of our freedoms.

OK, the mission for the day was to get to the Many Glacier area of the park. This means I would have to drive the Going to the Sun Road yet again. So by my count…..as of right now I have crossed the Continental Divide 7 times so far on this trip.

I got an early start. I was on the Road by 6:15 this morning. The traffic was much better and it was much nicer not to have to drive with the sun in my face the whole time.

When I reached this point on the Road, the sun started to do interesting things to the views I had heading to St. Marys. (The End of The Road)

I finally made it to St. Marys and took highway 89 north until I exited for the National Park road the leads to Many Glacier. When you finally reach the parks boundary the road becomes gravel for about 6 miles. My poor car is so dirty!

I drove straight to the Ranger / Information center and discussed my options for the days activities. The Ranger suggested a series of hikes that went along side and around three different lakes. The total length of the hike was supposed to be around 7 miles round trip. I figured that would probably be pushing the limits of my knee but what the heck, Ill go for it. Well I completed the hike. My watch tells me that I turned a 7 mile hike into a 10 1/2 mile hike! I am going to be so stiff in the morning and I only have an 8 hour drive to boot!

I know Ross…I’ll quit whining.

The first lake is Swiftcurrent Lake. The building in the background is the hotel in Many Glacier.

The second Lake is Lake Josephine. The Glacier in the background is Grinnell Glacier. I could have extended my hike and hiked all the way up to the glacier. It would only have added an additional 7 miles to the hike! Half of that would have been straight up. No thanks….I chose wisely and passed on that route.

The path I did take however did have some surprises. I saw my first real bear sign. The first things I saw were fairly large rocks kinda dug out of the path. The bears will do this looking for grubs and worms and such. The next thing i saw was some hair caught on some of the plants along side of the path. The last thing was unmistakable. Bear scat! Completely filled with Huckleberry seeds. Not just a couple……I’m talking hundreds of them. I was very conscious of where I had my bear spray at that point since I was pretty much alone at that point of the hike. There is definitely safety in numbers. Many people I saw had Reindeer Bells tied onto their belts or packs to make noise while they hiked. Very good idea!

Before I got to the third lake, there was a crowd on the path and everyone was very quiet and pointing into the brush. There was female moose just off the path by about thirty feet. By the time it was my turn to look and take a picture, the moose had started to move farther away into the brush. You know how big moose are. When you look at the picture its amazing how well they blend into the background.

Seeing the moose put a pep into my step, so when the option to add a little diversion to my hike I took it. The diversion was to hike to the “Hidden Falls”. It was only another 1/2 mile added to the hike, so why not!

After climbing back down from the Falls, I only had one more mile to get to the third lake “Grinnell Lake“. Only one obstacle, a cable bridge that didn’t like my weight! It bounced and swung side to side…….but in the end it held up just fine.

I finally arrived at the last lake and sat down for my snack.

I hiked back to the trailhead and ate my lunch feeling tired but very glad to have been out there today.

All in all an excellent day. I will head back to camp and start pre-packing things up. I am going to try to get another early start tomorrow so I can get to Yellowstone as early as possible. I only have another four or five days left in national parks! Hard to believe.

More tomorrow from Yellowstone…..