Having finished my solo hike across Oregon, I was not yet through with my summer. I watched Laura sing with Portland Opera as a guest artist and then her summer began in earnest. We had decided to spend our joint summer break in Montana at Glacier National Park. Neither of us having been there, we were excited to see this beautiful place that we had heard of from our friends in the area.
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| Stopping in Rosalia for lunch in a familiar spot from my bike trip |
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| Stopped at Farragut S.P. in Idaho |
We drove to Glacier National Park, stopping to visit our friends in Spokane. August is a great month for a drive! It was fun to watch the mountains grow as we headed up into the Rockies!
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| "Kootenai" is a really fun word to say! |
Glacier is a tricky place to camp in August because it is absolutely packed! A certain number of sites can be reserved but those are usually gone very quickly (online) as they become available. So we drove in without an established place to camp. This was very stressful to Laura, who prefers to plan things in advance. Thanks, Laura for trusting me to take care of things in the moment!
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| View near our Two Medicine campsite |
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| Sunrise on Lone Wolf peak |
Tips from our trip about camping at Glacier without a reserved spot:
1. Don't arrive on a weekend! There are plenty of people in the general area who leave during the week. We arrived on a weekend and it was quite busy!
2. Don't plan on the "best campground" because there really is no such thing. We arrived at the main campground (Apgar) and it was packed! It seemed like we would not get a spot but when we told informed the ranger of our intention to back country hike, he sent us to Two Medicine campground to a "hiker" site. It was a long drive out to a far corner of the park where "nobody goes" but when we got there is was amazingly beautiful! It became kind of our personal favorite place in the park and it was really nice and quiet when everyone cleared out!
3. Camping spots in the campgrounds are first-come-first-serve so lock down those spots EARLY! Arrive in the morning and take a spot as someone else drives away. If you have good people skills, ask someone (who is packing) if they are leaving and sit and wait. The security is worth it!
4. If you are hiking to back country sites, have a plan... have lots of plans! You can reserve open site only for the next 48 hours unless you plan a continuous hike that stretches longer. After camping the night at Two Medicine, I got up at 5 a.m. and waited for the ranger station to open. Laura and I had agreed on 12 different plans for our next hike. I checked them with availability of campsites posted on the station door and only 3 of them worked. Luckily, all of the hikers in the park seemed to be at Apgar and there was no line at Two Medicine. So I went first and took the best hike available before anyone else could!
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| Amazing morning light! |
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| Not funny! Well, maybe a little... |
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| Two Medicine Ranger station getting an outback campsite |
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| Off to Sperry Glacier! |
Hike 1: Sperry Glacier
This is a really cool spot in the park, one of a few paths through the heart of the park. It is usually taken but it was open on that night. So I booked it right away and we left for the other side of the park. It was a long 6 miles up and up from the lake to the chalet, where we had a late lunch.
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| View across Lake McDonald |
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| Here we go! |
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| Heading up to the glacier |
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| Stream crossing |
Laura took some time to relax at the Sperry chalet and I used that time to hike up to the actual glacier. It was another 2-3 miles up past a number of streams, glacial ponds, and rocky terraces.
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| Glacial stream |
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| Looking back toward the Chalet |
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| Approaching the shelf |
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| Last view of the Chalet |
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| Gunsight mountain to the south |
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| Rocks loosed by glaciers long gone |
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| Nice little pond |
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| Marmot catching some rays |
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| Gonna hike over that pass |
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| Baby iceburg! |
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| Going to climb up that crack in the rock! |
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| Edwards mountain |
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| Stairway to the top! |
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| Looking back down the valley |
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| Looking north from the pass |
The view at the top of the hike was amazing! It is so open and barren that high in the mountains but there are so many peaks around that it is difficult to identify anything in sight.
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| Heading around to the actual glacier |
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| Sperry glacier and Gunsight mountain |
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| Looking west past Edwards mountain |
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| Panorama to the north |
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| Laying on the glacier |
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| Heading back down to the Chalet |
From the chalet below the glacier, we hiked another mile or so east
to our campsite for the night. Here we met our neighbors for the night,
including a crazy lone mountain goat. He liked to follow people around waiting for them to pee. Our spot overlooked Lake McDonald
to the west, giving us a great view of an amazing sunset!
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| Laura looking of the chalet deck |
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| One more look before heading to our site |
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| Just a little farther |
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| Hanging things at the campsite |
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| Stalker goat following someone |
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| Stalker goat |
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| View to the west |
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| Mount Edwards |
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| Lake McDonald in the evening |
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| Nice campsite! |
The next day, we hiked back down to the going-to-the-sun road and our car. It was a nice hike and we made some great mileage sailing downhill in the cool morning air. We drove to the Apgar ranger station and I was able to secure our next hike in two days. But tonight we would stay at the amazing Many Glacier lodge, but that will have to wait until my next post...
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| Morning view to the west |
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| Breakfast with our neighbors! |
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| Edwards mountain |
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| Heading back down in the shade |
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| Deer friends |
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