For the last day of our trip, it was one final pass through Glacier National Park.
We started the day with a boat ride in the Two Medicine section of the park, so named due to two different Native American women selecting the area for a medicine lodge many years ago. Anyway, the boat dropped us at a trail head to several different locations (Glacier is packed with great hiking alternatives) and we headed a little over 1 mile in to a spot called Twin Falls. As you might have guessed, beautiful! We caught the boat back to where our car was parked and were off to travel the Road to the Sun one last time.
We made a planned stop at the Logan Pass visitor center, praying for some parking, and were lucky to find a spot within a few minutes of arrival. From there, we took the Hidden Lake trail and hiked to, well, Hidden Lake. Okay, we didn’t make it to the lake itself, but we did reach the lake overlook about 1.4 miles, and 450-plus feet above, the visitor center. I don’t believe in an actual Stairway to Heaven, but for a guy like me there were times on this climb that I was beginning to feel that I might need to rethink my position. Fortunately, the scenery was stunning and we were able to see mountain goats up close when we reached the top.
Speaking of wildlife, we entered the day with a checklist of the animals we had hoped to see, but hadn’t yet. These included the aforementioned mountain goats, bighorn sheep and a grizzly bear. By day’s end, we had seen them all, plus a moose that basically sauntered through the parking area at Two Medicine. The bighorn’s and the grizzly, with cub, were pretty far away, but they were easy to make out with binoculars, so they count!
Tomorrow it’s a 4 am wakeup call and two flights with Delta. Here’s hoping for smooth air, on-time flights and an easy connection in Minneapolis!
