Because our destination was on the far side of the Park we woke up early. I decided to pick some raspberries from my garden to add to my breakfast. While doing so I heard cattle mooing. My cattle were invited by my neighbor Jim to eat his pasture grass down as he was concerned about tall grass and fire later in the year. I looked out and could see my cattle in his field so I went inside to eat my breakfast.
A short time later Jim's wife came over to tell me a few of the cattle got into their northern neighbor's (John's) field. Three cattle made the jailbreak. I grabbed a pail of a few treats and made my way to join Jim and John who were unsuccessfully trying to get the three jail breaker's back to Jim's field.
I found the cattle had gotten through a loose section of fence in the far NW corner of Jim's property. I opened the small gate between Jim and John's fields and herded two cattle through the gate. The third heifer ran past the open gate to the section of fence she had originally crawled through. She crawled back through the fence to join the herd. Her actions confirmed where the jailbreak occurred.
I offered to fix and improve Jim's fence but he said he would take care of it so that Brian and I could go on our hike. Even so, I gave him a small roll of barb wire to use to fix the fence. He did so and there were no more jail breaks through the fence.
So much for our early start to the day. We started at 10 am.In Glacier Park we stopped at 'The Loop' to walk along the trail to take photos of the burned trees from the 2003 fire. I got another photo to add to my yearly collection.
At Logan Pass we noticed a bighorn sheep off the side of the road.
At Siyeh Bend we stopped to take photos back toward where we had hiked to Eden Overlook a few days ago.
It was 2 pm when we finally arrived at the Many Glacier hotel. As we crossed from the parking lot to the Many Glacier Hotel Brian encountered a pair of bighorn sheep.
In order to save us 3.4 miles (round trip) of hiking Brian wanted to take the boat across Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine. Otherwise the total distance would be 11 miles.
The boat ride cost $15. I had arrived at the boat's ticket booth below the Swiftcurrent Lodge well before Brian. I waited for Brian and the boat waited for us. After I paid for my ticket, and Brian was paying for his ticket, I noticed a small sign n the corner of the ticket booth's window saying the trail to Grinnell Glacier was closed.
What?!
I was told only the last half mile to mile of the trail was closed. A mountain goat had fallen onto the lake when it was frozen. The ice had melted and the goat floated in the water. Because the Park feared the dead goat would attract a bear the trail was closed at the end. Eventually the Park employees moved the goat to the lake's shore to hurry the time a bear would find and eat the goat's carcass. That still had not happened.
Argh!
Well... we had already bought the tickets, so we got on the boat. We found only a few people - about a dozen - were on the boat. Usually these boats are filled with people during high tourist season.
I was not happy about the Grinnell Glacier trail being closed and the boat company not mentioning it when I bought the tickets. I wanted this to be a great hike for Brian and I may have been more disappointed than he was. Poor Brian had to endure my grumbling about this for quite a while until I got it out of my system.
From the boat, here is a view back towards Swiftcurrent Lodge.
This photo shows the southern and western valleys of the Many Glacier area with Grinnell Point dividing them. Today's hike was towards the southern valley. Logan Pass is beyond the far mountains in the southern valley. The western valley was where I lost my hat as I descended the those mountains from Swiftcurrent Pass.
The first photo shows our tour guide.
The boat went around Swiftcurrent Lake to a boat dock at the other end. From here it was a .2 of a mile walk to Lake Josephine and a second boat for a short ride to the boat dock on the other side of this lake.
The following photo shows Lake Josephine and the mountains (Angel Wing [in the foreground] among them) at the far end of the lake.
From the boat dock at the SE part of Lake Josephine, here is the view if we traveled to Grinnell Glacier. The glacier seen in the background is the Salamander Glacier. Grinnell Glacier is to the left of the Salamander Glacier, hidden from this view by Angel Wing.
Instead of hiking to Grinnell Glacier Brian and I decided to follow boat captain on a one mile walk that she led to Grinnell Lake. While she made a few interesting comments along the trail we soon left the group as they walked so slow. It is hard to walk so slow.
The following photo is of Grinnell Lake with part of the Salamander Glacier seen above Grinnell Falls.
It was very windy at the lake when we arrived. As you can see in the following photo, the wind blows often and to some effect on the trees.
We walked along the shoreline a bit looking for a trail around the south side of the lake. The path eventually petered out in the shrubs. A small group of 20-something men and women were lounging near the lake close to where the path petered out.
When we returned back to the main trail the group from the boat had arrived and were now on the lake shore. Brian and decided to return to Lake Josephine. On the way back we hiked .2 mile side trail to Hidden Falls and checked out the view.
During the boat ride back to the Lodge one of the boat employees noticed my "Coors Classic Bicycle Race" t-shirt. He used to live in Colorado and attended the race when younger.
The Many Glacier hotel was built in 1914-1915. It is old with small rooms. A person was playing classical music on a piano in the lobby area.
After we left the Lodge we encountered numerous vehicles on and along the road. A grizzly bear was above the road. Many people had stopped and were watching and taking photos. The Many Glacier Valley is one of the better areas of the Park in which to see a bear.
Seeing a bear continued Brian's string of 'always seeing a bear' when he visits Glacier Park. He didn't think he'd see a bear this visit as usually he would have seen one by now. Brian made a big deal about seeing a bear and not really wanting to see a bear, and he moaned and nashed his teeth over this. But I could tell he was pleased to see a bear so as to keep his string of bear sightings alive.
The bear moved along the road and higher up on the mountain side. Following the bear's progress cars moved and leapfrogged one another along the road. Brian was the only person to leave the road as he climbed up a little of the lower mountain side to get a better view of the bear moving up on ahead of him.
"Brian, what happened to being afraid of bears?"
Brian took a few photos and had returned to the road before a Park Ranger came and chased everyone away by walking down the road and having everyone leave. Good thing Brian had returned to the road before the ranger arrived. The ranger said the bear wanted to cross the road to reach the stream below the road. It had been hot all week and the bear wanted water.
Later we stopped at a store near the Rising Sun campground. Inside I found a great t-shirt: "Let someone else climb the corporate ladder." The shirt had a small drawing of two hikers hiking up and along a mountain ridge. Even though I loved the t-shirt, I have too many t-shirts now, so I did not buy it.
Outside the store, as I waited for Brian, I talked with a Minnesota girl and her boyfriend (darn!) at Rising Sun campground while they waited for a shower. We talked about Glacier, Minnesota, and some of the trails in the area.
As we drove back along St Mary Lake we saw a few cars along the road. Yup, another bear. This time we saw a brown bear between the road and lake.
The sun getting lower in the west sky as we drove on towards Logan Pass.
Photo 1: St Mary Lake
Photo 2: Mountains
Photo 3: Reynolds Mountain at Logan Pass.
At Logan Pass we parked in the parking lot and took a break to walk a half mile or more on the Highline Trail. The trail is right over the Going-to-the-Sun Road in many places near its beginning. A rock pushed off the trail could easily fall on a car below.
Photo 1 shows the Highline trail, Going-to-the-Sun road, Flattop Mountain, and the Garden Wall. This is the west side of the Garden Wall. If you climb a side trail to the far "notch" on the right above Flattop Mountain, you can look down on Grinnell Glacier.
Mountain goats were on the trail. We also saw big horn sheep below on the road. One sheep ran down the road ahead of a car who wouldn't wait. There were also deer and a fawn along the road.
Back at Logan Pass I spoke with a woman who bicycled up the road and was checking out the sights before riding back down. She was in the middle of moving from British Columbia over to Ontario Canada. When she had lived closer to Montana she used to ride down the Sun road during the full moon rides. I had never ridden down the Sun road in the moonlight, but little did I know that in less in a month I would meet Colleen and we would ride down the Sun Road on our bicycles under a full moon.
Here are views of the sunset as we walked along the Highline trail.
We drove down the road in the dark. A group of bighorn sheep were on the road.
We got back home around 11:15 pm. Another late night. As I walked to the house from my mailbox I discovered deer were in my fruit tree and garden area. I could not see them but it sounded like they tried to jump my chain link fence and failed as I heard the fence rattle after unsuccessful attempts. Eventually the deer jumped the barb wire fence along the road and left.
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