Glacier National Park Montana - Friday 23rd - Monday 26th July 2010

Had a great few days in our last national park for the United States.  We were told that it gets very packed and to get in there early so we stayed at Columbia Falls about 15 miles from the entrance to the park the night before.  We got into the park at about 9.30am just as somebody was driving out and we drove straight into their spot which was really good.  The park has a shuttle service to take you to the top of the mountain and when you go up the road you can see why?  It is very steep, narrow and winding so if you sit on the right hand side of the bus you just look out straight over the side.  Takes a bit of getting used to.  On the way to the top a grizzly bear ran across the road and down the side of the mountain, grabbed for the camera but it was too quick.  The same thing happened with the moose but it was good to see them anyway.

You can kind of see the steepness, this is about 1 mile from the top

The road to Logan Pass which is the highest point is about 23 miles long and climbs from 3,000ft at the campground to 6,646ft at the top.  The trip takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get there depending on conditions 

Once at the top there was a good hike to Hidden Lake which was beautiful although there were a few spots on the trail that were very slippery as they still had snow on them

Passing view between the fog

Found a friendly hoary marmot along the track

And a few mountain goats that wanted to pose for photos

Hidden Lake at the end of the trail

It was too far for the mouse so she conked out and had to hitch a ride

The next day we caught the shuttle up the BIG hill again and went for a hike to some beautiful waterfalls

After we came back down the hill we sat by the lake and I even had a couple of swims which is really weird when you've just been up in snow all day.  About 5-6 o'clock in the evening is the hottest part of the day

The next day on our hike we caught a woodpecker in action

Had lunch out the front of the Lake MacDonald Lodge in the sunshine and rested after hiking about 12kms