After 5.7 miles we made it to Grinnell Glacier. The giant steep rock wall enclosing the area is called the Garden Wall, it is part of the continental divide.
If you look at the top of the wall in the 4th picture there is a notch in the Garden Wall above and to the right of Salamander Glacier. You can hike to that point from the Highline Trail. Pictures from that spot from September 2008 are here and from September 2007 here.
On Sunday we camped in Many Glacier and did a hike to Grinnell Glacier. I had attempted this hike with my parents in early June a few years ago. We had to turn back a few miles from the end because there was too much snow in the higher elevation areas. This time there wasn’t any snow blocking the way.
The hike is a little under 12 miles round trip, and offers some spectacular scenery the whole way.
The next day we drove up to Glacier National Park. We got there in the afternoon and being the middle of summer most of the campsites were already full so we drove out on the Inner North Fork Road to Logging Creek Campground.
There was a really excellent thunderstorm that night with a lot of thunder but not much rain. Thunder always reminds me of North Carolina.
The final pictures of the hike and some miscellaneous pictures of our last day in Glacier.
Three mountain goats joined us for a little while as we were enjoying the view. Mountain goats are seen quite a bit in Glacier, but it was interesting to see them in their natural environs rather than right beside the road.
I also added a “Wildlife” category if you want to scope out other pictures of ferocious beasts.
The Iceberg Lake is a 10 mile out and back hike. About 3 miles from the start there is a turnoff for Ptarmigan Lake. Coming back we decided to check it out.
Hilary and I went to Glacier National Park over the weekend. Saturday was spent doing a pretty amazing hike to Iceberg Lake and then to the Ptarmigan Tunnel. Here are some pictures of the Going to the Sun Road from Friday evening and the start of our hike on Saturday.
The third day we rode from Bigfork to West Glacier. The Adventure Cycling Map had a nice backroad to take for much of the way. We camped at Sprague Creek after discovering that Avalanche wasn’t going to open for another 4 days.
The road was closed at Avalanche for cars due to the clearing of the winter’s snow off the Going to the Sun Road. However, bikes were allowed to go 10 miles or so further up to The Loop, the single switchback in the Sun road. It was an unexpected surprise to be able to have the whole road to ourselves for a decent distance.
After the ride we did the short hike up to Avalanche lake.
The next morning we departed, backtracked to Columbia Falls, and headed north towards Eureka, Montana.
What can I say, it was a long hike in a beautiful place so there were a lot of pictures taken.
I think we were fairly lucky with the weather. The parking lot at Logan Pass was quite windy and a little cold but once you got out of the wind tunnel it was quite pleasant.
I’m finally back in Bozeman, ready for school to start tomorrow.
We snuck up to Glacier for the final outing of the summer. I was in Glacier last Labor Day Weekend so it was interesting to compare the snowpack from the two years.
Saturday we had some excellent weather and did the Highline Trail from Logan Pass to The Loop, it is about 12 miles (almost all downhill though) with a mandatory 0.6 mile uphill side trail to overlook the Many Glacier area.
Here are some pictures from the drive up the western portion of the Going to the Sun Road and the start of the hike.
