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Published: September 10th 2009
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My dear friend, Robin, and I both took our first trip to Montana to hike around Glacier National Park over the Labor Day holiday. It's both stunning and breathtaking, just to pick a couple of words to describe the majesty of the park. We arrived late Thursday and took a quick trip into the West Glacier entrance driving for a little bit along Lake McDonald. We had rented a timber frame cottage on the east side of the park though, so before long we exited the park taking the drive along Route 2 to East Glacier. Passing through Essex, we stopped for dinner at the Izaak Walton Inn where the train line ends. All of Glacier National Park was built around the idea that visitors would take the train to the park then stay at one of the lodges or chalets, sometimes going no further than the end of the train line, sometimes continuing via horseback up into the mountains.
The next day, Robin and I decided to visit one of these mountain-top chalets, specifically Granite Park Chalet. There are a few ways to get to the chalet, including by horseback. We decided to hike the Swiftcurrent Pass. Follow our
route from Swiftcurrent Motor Inn to Granite Park Chalet here: http://tinyurl.com/nglpp9 The path is pretty easy going except for the steep and severe cutbacks along the mountainside that takes us about 2,000 feet up in the air over two hours or so. The 50-60 mph gusts of wind didn't help too much either. But once we turned the last mountainside corner and entered into the alpine meadow, the wind wasn't much of an issue. The view of the Chalet, once it was in sight, was a much welcomed vision! We stopped for lunch, taking in the scenary and fresh air until we were fully rested. At this point, we decided to make the additional 500 or so foot climb to the Grinnell Glacier Overlook. Once again, we were encountered with a non-too-easy climb (elevation was really starting to be an issue) rewarded with spectacular vistas. Sadly, there isn't much left of Grinnell Glacier. But it was well worth the hike. Around 3:30pm, we started back down the way we came. The sun had come out and we enjoyed its warmth fully until we hit the exposed mountain and those strong winds once again.
Safely at the bottom of the
Granite Park Chalet
Despite the name, there is no granite to be found in the area. mountain, we thought it was smooth (and flat) sailing back to Swiftcurrent Motor Inn. We were gleefully belting out showtunes in an attempt to alert the grizzly bears of our coming. It was about 5pm when we see a family of three approaching us and the mountain trail behind. We thought it was odd that people would be starting the ascent at this time of day. But that wasn't why they were coming toward us. "You have to turn around now," one of them said. "There is a huge grizzly bear on the trail ahead."
"We're not kidding," the mom said with a look of terror on her face.
Now, there are plenty of warnings around the park about grizzlies and what to do if you see them. The point they drive home is not to startle the bear, hence the showtunes. However, once you cross paths with the bear, should it happen, you're suppose to slowly back away. Well, we weren't about to go back the way we came up that treacherous climb. Plus, the lake they saw the bear getting into, led up to a creek that we had just crossed. "The bear could swim all
the way up the creek and cut us off at the pass," I said, or something along those lines. We were NOT about to go back the way we had come. Eventually, after some back and forth, we convince the mother that together, as a fivesome, we could make enough noise to deter the bear from attacking. So we start booking back to the trailhead - clapping, shouting and whistling all the way. We think we're pretty safe - the monster grizzly they had seen was nowhere to be found. About two miles down, we run into two women stopped in the path. The one closer to us looks back and smiles at us as we approach. There is a bear in the path. A much smaller one than the male grizzly the family had seen. The woman in front is taking pictures of it. Oi vey! Taking pictures isn't really the brightest thing to do in this scenario. But they're Belgium it turns out, so I understand maybe they didn't read the 2,000 warnings posted everywhere. Before we can blink twice, a cub comes out of the woods and joins the mother on the trail. The family we had
joined along the trail, the Porters, retold the story of their grizzly encounter over and over again as we walked back together. The one point they all agreed on was they were very glad they hadn't encountered a momma bear and her cubs. This scenario is often the one that leads to bear maulings - the mom protecting the children. So as the cub joins the momma bear on the trail, and the woman in front of us with the camera starts to walk CLOSER to the bears, you can imagine the chorus of NO's we let out. Since I'm here typing this tale, obviously nothing terrible happened. The two bears went on their merry way and the group, now seven strong, made it back without any further near death experiences.
The rest of the trip was full of wild animal sightings. They were all quite spectacular. We enjoyed cocktails on the deck overlooking Swiftcurrent Lake at Many Glacier Inn later that evening. We took the fabulous Going to the Sun Road free shuttle the park offers to Logan Pass and hiked to Hidden Lake. We cruised in a boat across Two Medicine Lake and journeyed out to Twin
Looking Back from Whence We Came
From atop the steep mountainside along Swiftcurrent Pass, looking back toward where we started near Swiftcurrent Lake. Falls. Robin and I drove out to the town of Browning in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The last day, as the weather sleeted on the east side of the park, we headed west, back along Route 2 and enjoyed the relative dryness of the Westside of the park, hiking around Lake McDonald. Our last night, we stayed in Kalispell, at the Travellodge Carlton as Robin referred to it, and enjoyed a brisk walk around the quaint old downtown spending our last Montana evening drinking away the hours at Moose's. There, like everywhere we went, we thoroughly enjoyed meeting the friendliest locals. Kinder folks, I'm not sure I've ever met on a trip. And we even ran into our buddies, the Porters, there at Moose's! Across the board, a great trip.
I've uploaded some of the best pictures here. The rest, along with a few videos, can be found on my flickr page here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69192286@N00/sets/72157622320017520/
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Lisa
non-member comment
Looks Awesome!
Gorgeous country up there!