Hiking Glacier

Hiking Glacier

Glacier National Park is MAGNIFICENT! We spent a full week at Glacier, loving every minute of it. The beauty of the alpine landscape with its waterfalls, lakes and sheer rock surfaces were so peaceful and lovely. Seeing the wildlife in their natural settings was better than any zoo could ever offer.

We stayed several days in the south eastern area of the park near St. Mary and drove to various trail heads each day.  One day we drove along the Going to the Sun Road to Logan’s Point, where we took an alpine hike to Hidden Lake. Going up the trail we spotted a mountain goat and took lots of pictures of that guy, thinking he would be the only one we’d see. When we got to the end we climbed down the rocks to a point with a spectacular view overlooking the mountains, glaciers, waterfalls and lake. While down on the rocks a pair of mountain goats followed Kolton to a point where he had to get out of their way or risk getting gored. Kane found a spot to sit quietly and soak up the serene beauty of the landscape. On the way back Karson spotted a nanny goat and her 3 kids and excitedly showed us his find. Our 4 kids also got their Junior Ranger badges while at Logan’s Point that day.

 

 



 

Having seen very little wildlife at St. Mary, we decided to head north to an area called Many Glacier, where we heard there were more abundant opportunities for viewing the animals of the park. Driving up the road to Many Glacier on the first day, there were several cars pulled off to the side and people were looking up the mountain and pointing. We found a place to pull over and got out to see what folks were focused on. There was a bear foraging up there, and we got a glimpse of it through our binoculars and felt pretty satisfied that we had finally seen one. Another bear sighting gave us a view of a mother grizzly and her two cubs – also through our binoculars. We also saw moose, and a bear walked right in front of our car as we drove through the park one day!

One day Ken took Kolton and Karson for a 10 mile hike to a place called Iceberg Lake. If you know these guys you can take a guess at what they did at Iceberg Lake – yep, they did the polar bear plunge!

One of the kids' favorite things to do while hiking is eating the yummy berries along the way!



Ken made plans for us to hike to the Grinnell Glacier – an 8 mile trek roundtrip climbing rocky trails. I was a bit worried about Kalista making that trip, but Ken assured me that with our help, she would make it. I should have been more worried about ME making that trip! Those four miles up consisted of a 1,400 foot ascent in elevation and I got altitude sickness or dehydrated or both. God bless my sons for their kind encouragement and patience as I slowly made my way to that darn glacier. And God bless Ken for helping Kalista make that hike, because I could only focus on my own grueling labor up that mountain! At varying intervals Kane, Kolton and Karson stayed near me giving me encouragement along the way. Near the top, fatigued and light-headed, I stopped and cried out, “I can’t go any farther!” Sweet Kolton encouraged “It’s not much farther Mom! It’s just over this ridge.” The precious little liar kept my spirits up just enough to get over the next several ridges to the prize. As we came over the last ridge Kolton saw someone out walking on the snow and asked, “Is that Kane out there? That looks like him. No, he wouldn’t be out there.” But it was Kane out there!  Kolton joined him and they made snow angels on the glacier.



An avalanche crashed in the distance, and snow thundered down in heaps over the glacier. I wept at the sight and from sheer exhaustion. We could only sit for a short while because we had to make it back down the mountain to get to the boat that would return us to our starting point. So we ate a quick snack and drank from our bottles of water fresh from the rushing falls we had collected on our way up, before making the trip back down on noodle-y legs.  

 

Exhausted, we rode the ferry back to the chalet and went back to the camper and collapsed.

It was the most difficult hike I have ever made, but I am so glad for the experience. The loving support of my precious family along the way and the magnificent view of the glacier were so worth the pain and struggle.