National Parks Road Trip 13: Many Glacier

After the previous day's punishing yet rewarding hike left us exhausted and sore, we decided to take it easy on our last day. (Spoiler: we did not take it easy.) L drove up to the Many Glacier park entrance, narrowly avoiding the dog, rabbit, and deer that all seemed to want to throw themselves directly into the path of our moving vehicle.

We parked in front of the big old lodge, where we had planned to get hot chocolate later but which was closed for the season. (Although the parks have been fairly busy, lots of places seem to be shuttered in September, some shuttles aren't running, and the much-advertised huckleberry pies have been tragically unavailable.) The weather was once again grey, chilly, and even more blustery, but we were protected from the wind when we made it to the trees, the sun came out now and then, and we like hiking in that kind of weather anyway.

We saw more moose tracks along the path and kept our eyes open; finally, L spotted him not far away and staring right at us. We stood in awe for a while, ready to calmly panic if he came in our direction, but he walked across the path and lumbered up a hill and off into the trees on the other side.

We stopped for snacks up at Grinnell Lake, another impossibly beautiful spot with cliffs, waterfalls, turquoise glacier water, etc, whatever, yawn. We took the north side route on the way back and saw mountain goats, then dutifully informed everyone we passed for the next half-hour to keep an eye out for the mountain goats. (Someone nervously asked if we had seen any grizzlies, which had already happened a few times before.)

We made it back to the car as some rain and hail rolled in. The clouds were looking intense, so we got tea at a diner outside the park and debated our plan to drive back up to Logan Pass. The server told us that our destination trail was closed due to "bear activity", but a ranger at the visitor centre by the park entrance said it was only closed four miles out from the trailhead. We asked how the weather was up there and he turned to look out the window behind him and kinda shrugged. We finally decided to give it a shot for our last day, and it was the right decision.

Highline Trail was incredible. The path goes straight out from the pass along a rocky cliffside, with a cable to hang onto for the most dizzying section in the first few hundred meters. You soon get a view of the entire western valley, with the road winding downwards below and seemingly endless mountains in the distance. It was thrilling.

We were pelted with a bit more hail as we went back to the parking lot and then out onto the trail to Hidden Lake. We'd taken this one two days earlier but hadn't been able to see anything except the thick fog; now we found out that we'd been missing even more beautiful scenery. Four bighorn sheep nervously crossed the path in front of us as excited tourists snapped pics, and big clouds floated below us and rolled majestically off the hills in big crazy spirals.

The view from the overlook at the lake was distinctly unfoggy. We ate some snacks, took some pics for people, and got one taken ourselves by a very dedicated man who climbed up onto some rocks to get the perfect framing. Not far from the lookout, L spotted a marmot chilling on a ledge, which surely must fill in some kind of insane wildlife bingo card.

As if to emphasize that it really was the end of our trip, the clouds rolled in and showered us with hail, which turned to rain as we drove down and out of the park, then back into a brief snow squall on the highway back to the motel. We made it back, ate the last of our leftovers, and put our feet up for real this time.