Piegan Pass to Many Glacier

Last Friday our group hiked over Piegan Pass, down into the Many Glacier Valley and over to the Many Glacier Hotel at the northeast end of Swiftcurrent Lake.

There were 6 hikers and three drivers. We needed two drivers for two vehicles, as the beginning and end of our route were many miles across a mountain divide. The drivers were Bill's and Arnie's wives.

The map shows the driving route from Siyeh Bend to Many Glacier.

The six hikers were:

• Bill
• Joyce
• Edley
• Arnie
• Edwina 
• me
  

Sue Ann is kayacking in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Earlier she had called Bill to let him know that at that moment she was on the lake as she knew Jackson Hole is one of Bill's favorite areas.

Here is a link to an interactive map showing our route. Move your cursor over the red 26 and 36 on the map to see photos of Piegan Pass and the Swiftcurrent Lake and Many Glacier hotel area.

A couple more maps:

Joyce and Edley picked me up for the 8 am meeting in Columbia Falls. Edwina had been there since 7 am as she had the meeting time wrong.

It was a cold morning and I had frost on the lawn and hayfield. I left my garden covered.

At we drove up Going-to-the-Sun road to cross Logan Pass there were clouds. A few miles before the pass we drove through the clouds and could look down on their sunlit tops as they filled the valley. The east side of the pass was clear.

We started our hike at the Siyeh (Sigh' - ee) bend.


The low shrubs and flowers along the stream were white with frost until the trail turned into the tall pine trees. Everyone but Edley wore a coat. He said the cold didn't bother him. On top of that he was only wearing a short sleeve shirt. Brrrr!!

I wore my splint on my sore wrist and had my hand in my coat pocket as I hiked. It helped.

Only Arnie and Edwina brought bear spray and they hiked in the back. I was in the front and said maybe they should lead. "No thanks", they said, "bears prefer young people as they are more tender and juicy to eat than the old tough people." Thanks...

Bill and Arnie got adventurous and bushwhacked a shortcut. You wouldn't think Bill was in his 70s and Arnie is 81. They later speculated about hiking/bushwhacking from Siyeh bend straight up to the pass on a future hike. The rest of us stayed on the trail.

The trail split and another part went to Siyeh Pass. A sign warned of recent bear sightings on the Siyeh Pass trail. Glad were not going there.

We met a young back country ranger coming down from the pass. We chatted with him about the trail, bear sitings, his job, and where he was from.

Closer to the pass we spotted two bighorn sheep. The first one was a good distance below and we initially debated if it was a rock - until it moved. The second sheep was sitting and chewing and had massive and impressive curled horns. I imagine these bighorn sheep were the cause of the animal tracks on the steep snowfields against Pollock Mountain.

Here is a view back to Siyeh Bend.


On the right of the stream is where Bill and Arnie would like to bushwhack and look for what they believe is an old abandoned trail to the pass from the bend.

Here is a view of Piegan Pass. To reach Piegan Pass we climbed 1750 ft in 4.5 miles.



This 360 degree view shows the entire route from Siyeh Bend to the pass:


The mountains still had fresh snow from the previous couple days. I went over to some of the snow against the Pollock Mountain. Yup, fresh wet snow. The mountains and views were extremely gorgeous. I really wished I had a camera!

We ate our lunch at the pass with magnificent views of the backside of the Garden Wall, Piegan Mountain, Mt Gould, and Siyeh Mountain. The following photo is the view from the pass down into Many Glacier valley.


To the west, at the base of the Garden Wall, from this distance the scree / gravel that lay below the vertical drop looked like fine sand. A small turquoise lake was at base of the scree / gravel.

At times a cool breeze blew as we sat on rocks and ate our lunch. Brrrr. But the views were worth the chill.

The route to the Many Glacier Hotel descended 2640 ft over 8.3 miles. When going down into the Many Glacier Valley, for about a half mile to a mile, snow was on the trail. The trail was on the north side of the pass. Light snow, but wet and slippery. I seen that some permanent snowfields had large cracks where the field slipped slightly.

Arnie has climbed a number of mountains: Siyeh, Gould, Angel Wing. No technical climbing. He climbed Siyeh twice. His last climb of Siyeh was 15 years ago when he was 65.

We came across a few instances of purple bear scat on the trail. Fortunately, not fresh. The color was from the huckleberries. There were still huckleberries and thimbleberries to be picked.

We would pause ever so often to pick some berries the bears had left. The thimbleberries were past season as they were either very ripe and would fall apart when picked, else dry. We also saw many signs were the bears had torn the dirt and rocks along the trail in search of something.

We hiked past Morning Eagle Falls. Along the way we had seen the stream that fed the falls; then the trail went down for views from across then below the falls. Very nice.

After 6 miles we reached Lake Josephine. One could take a boat across this short lake to a narrow piece of land, then another boat across Swiftcurrent Lake to the Many Glacier hotel. Edwina, Bill, and Joyce waited for the boat. Arnie, Edley, and I hiked the 2.2 miles along the lakes to the Many Glacier hotel.

The photo is of Lake Josephine looking up the valley that has the Grinnell glacier. The glacier in the photo is not the Grinnell glacier.

There were more people now on the trail. We had seen a few people on the trail from Siyeh Bend to Piegan Pass who were only hiking to the pass. We had seen no one on between the pass and the lake.

We got to the lodge 13 miles and 6 hours later. We were tired. Arnie said his body sure knew it had been somewhere that day.


In the photo of Swiftcurrent Lake, to the right behind the mountain is the valley with the Grinnell glacier. To the left behind the mountain is where we had hiked from the pass.



The ladies were waiting at the hotel. They said they had a good time and the time passed quickly. I checked out the hotel before sitting down on one of the couches around the large fireplace - which was burning logs.

We all went outside to meet the boat. The boat was full but did not have our hikers. A person getting off the boat said people were left for the next boat as this one was full. While waiting for the next boat Edley, Bill's wife, and I sat down outside on a picnic table to wait. We ended up chatting with a couple from near NYC who had rafted the Snake river in Idaho before visiting Glacier.

An hour later the next boat brought our hikers. It turns out ticket holders (round trip) had priority. That is why our hikers weren't on the prior boat. When we had left them at Lake Josephine only a half dozen people were waiting for the boat. Then people started to continually arrive, followed by a large park ranger led group. The boat holds 49 people and the boat they arrived on had 48 passengers. They barely fit on the boat.

Here is a view of the hotel.

As we drove out of park we saw cars and people on the side of the road looking down towards a lake. A man was walking to the lake. We stopped and asked people watching what they were looking at. A grizzly bear was along the lake, although now was hidden from view by trees. It was after 6 pm and I joked it was dinner time for the bear. The man started to walk back up to the road as we left. No bear snack tonight.

The Park Cafe in St. Mary was full when we arrived. The outdoor seating was closed. It was a long wait so we went to another cafe. No pie at this place. Hamburgers and salad. Also ice cream.


I didn't get home until almost 9:30 pm . It was dark and I was tired. But the day's hike was well worth it.