Glacier - Precursor to the journey

When you last left our intrepid travelers, they were facing the daunting decision of what to do about their dashed back country adventure plans. Do they alter the route totally or face the brutal route from Lake McDonald to St. Mary Lake?

Well after a lot of deliberation, I decided that IF (and it was a big if) the campsites we wanted were still available, that we would buck up and do the reverse route that we had originally planned. We had a tiny window as there was only one opening at both the campgrounds we needed, and if either booked up we'd have to totally scrap plans and find something altogether different.

So the next morning we got up at 6:30 and headed to the back country permit office for the 7am opening. We arrived 3rd in line, but with a bit of luck we found 3 rangers so we were in the first line of people. We quickly spilled out our agenda while the rangers and other two sets of campers took notice and commented on how tough that route was. We never do anything the easy way...

So we had our permits secured for the following day, but we would still had all day to fill so we decided to warm up our legs with some day hikes. On Judy's recommendation, we started with the Trail of the Cedars which was a quick 1 mile hike around some of the oldest trees in Glacier National Park.



After that we made our way up Going to the Sun Road to the visitor's center to check out another Judy recommended trail, the trail to Hidden Lake. The hike starts at the visitor center and heads up steadily from there to the overlook above Hidden Lake.



On our way up we got to see more of the local animal crowd, including mountain goats, bighorn sheep, and a hungry marmot chomping away. Despite the pretty high traffic, the animals seemed relatively unaffected by the people and the constant shutterbugs snapping pics, myself included.










After Hidden Lake, we headed up to the NE side of the park to check out the Many Glaicer area. In what is typically the most photographed area of the park, we were pretty much limited to a quick drive through as the haze had finally caught up to us that day and the views were quite compromised.

After grabbing some dinner, we decided to do one final 4 mile hike up to Avalanche Lake. Avalanche Lake is a high alpine lake that sits a huge three quarters bowl with numerous waterfalls feeding this turquoise colored lake. We made pretty quick work of the trail, and then enjoyed the views before heading back down to get some rest as tomorrow would be a big day. A very, very big day...