GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Montana: A Place to Renew Your Spirit by Caroline Arnold at The Intrepid Tourist

52 Places to Go: Week 19

Hidden Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana

Recently, I came upon an article about Glacier National Park promoting it as a place to go to renew your spirit. It brought back thoughts of a memorable family trip to the park in 1961. To get there we drove from our home in Minneapolis across North Dakota and most of Montana, then spent a week camping in the park, sleeping in our umbrella tent and cooking on our camp stove and over the fire. As I still do when I travel, I kept a diary of the trip. My parents saved the diary, and I found it when I was going through some old family photo albums. My entries note both our activities of the day and more mundane issues such as the weather and what we ate for dinner. (In one entry I describe making peach cobbler over the campfire. In another, I tell how I burned all the lamb chops for dinner!)  I have put some excerpts of our daily activities below. Bear in mind that I was seventeen when I wrote them! For information about visiting the park today go to the National Parks website for Glacier at http://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm. 

 

Glacier National Park 

Excerpts from Caroline’s 1961 Vacation Log
August 5
We entered Glacier at 1:00.  Our campsite is nice, near St. Mary (Rising Sun Campground) and after it was set up we swam at Lost Lake, a beautiful, cool, but refreshing lake at the bottom of a mountain.

August 6
We first went to Sun Point and then walked to Baring Falls.  The walk was so pretty we used up all the film in the cameras! 

Hike to Virginia Falls with Ranger

 August 7
We got up early for a 9:00 hike to Virginia Falls.  Since no one else was there, we got a specially guided tour by the ranger.  The hike didn’t really seem like six miles because he knew so much and made it sound so interesting.  We ate our lunch on a beautiful grassy ledge about half way up the falls, where we were continually sprayed with mist.

August 8
Most of today was spent in the car recuperating from yesterday’s hike. ... We stopped at Avalanche campground and went on a self-guided nature trail and saw a bear.

August 9
The clouds descended and the rain poured forth as I stayed in my tent all morning reading,  ignoring the deluge in hopes that it would desist. [I was reading the Scarlet Letter, which today sounds like rather ambitious summer reading.  Perhaps it inspired my rather ambitious prose.]

August 10
We took a somewhat leisurely hike back to Hidden Lake for lunch, photographing wildflowers along the way.  We saw three ptarmigan, who were so tame that I got within eight feet to take a picture.  By the same rock on the way back Steve and I saw a hoary marmot, but he, not being so friendly, ducked into his hole before we could photograph him. 

August 11
This morning we arose bright and early for our hike along the Garden Wall.  For the first hour and a half it was rather chilly because of being in the shade of the mountain.  Later the valley dropped below us, revealing a spectacular view, at one point all the way to the end of Lake McDonald.  After four and a half hours of easy walking, with the exception of one switchback, we stopped for a picnic lunch within view of the Granite Park chalet. The last three and half miles went surprisingly fast.  After recuperating for an hour at the chalet with a 35 cent piece of pie, we descended to the end of the trail.

August 12
After lunch we decided to go to Waterton Lakes National Park [the Canadian side of Glacier National Park.] After four miles, however, we got a flat tire, out in the middle of nowhere. [As I remember, the only road connecting the parks was rough gravel.]  The trip, when we finally arrived was worth it, for the scenery was beautiful and the Prince of Wales Hotel was just like a castle out of an old English storybook.

I have fond memories of the Glacier trip and remember the park for its spectacular scenery and as a place not overcrowded with tourists.  Several years ago, my brother Tom Scheaffer returned to Glacier and went back to many of the same places we visited in 1961.  One difference now is that the glaciers for which the park is named are rapidly melting due to global warming.  Nevertheless, it is still one of our most beautiful national parks and a perfect place for renewing your spirit at any time of year.

This article first posted at The Intrepid Tourist October 22, 2012.

You can also visit Glacier in Caroline Hatton's report at TIT 9/4/17: A Bad Day at Logan Pass (not really).

All text and photos copyright Caroline Arnold
www.theintrepidtourist.blogspot.com

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK: A bad day at Logan Pass (not really) Guest post by Caroline Hatton

Mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus), Glacier National Park

My friend and fellow children's book author Caroline Hatton and her husband visited Glacier National Park in Montana in August 2017, where, despite less than optimal viewing conditions, they saw lots of wildlife. She took the photos in this post. Caroline's latest book, C'est pas marrant  is in her native French, for ages 8 and up. It's about humorous sibling antics in Paris. Here's her report of her trip to Glacier NP.

It was supposed to be a vacation, a break from L.A. smog and traffic. Not!

As we arrived at Glacier National Park, evening winds stretched a thick blanket of wildfire smoke over the Rocky Mountains,* the brownish haze blurring the ridges visible from our cabin at Rising Sun. The next morning, a Sunday, the cold air smelled smoky and the closest peak had a faint, sickly purplish tinge. The mountainscapes looked jaundiced and washed out like watercolors by an art class drop-out.To reduce pollution and enjoy sightseeing without concern about driving and parking, we left our rental car at the St Mary Visitor Center, at the eastern end of the famous Going-to-the-Sun Road, and rode the park's free shuttle to Logan Pass. A long line of cars and assorted buses approached the pass and the trail up to Hidden Lake looked like an ant hill crawling with tourists. 

Columbian ground squirrel (Urocitellus columbianus)

Before hiking to the Hidden Lake Overlook, we squeezed onto a crowded bench for a bite of lunch. I was elbowed by what turned out to be a rude, unshaved, local resident (a Columbian ground squirrel), who proceeded to stare at me and inspect my day pack without permission.

I thumped my boot but he didn't even blink. To keep him from chewing a hole in my pack, I had to yank it away. He had targeted the corner, inside which were Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts, an unexpected sign of good taste in an otherwise uncivilized individual.

Hoary marmot (Marmota caligata), total length 2 feet ~ 60 cm or more

Having lost our appetite, we headed up the trail, onto the board walk, careful not to step on visitors crouched to hold iPhones closer to masses of pink, purple, yellow, and white wildflowers; loose toddlers; and unwashed, out of control residents (hoary marmots)**--who ate the flowers!

Seriously: not reckless, but cautious trio of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis)

Farther uphill, a reckless trio (three bighorn sheep) raced across the trail with no warning, between oncoming groups of hikers. It looked like a collision begging to happen. In L.A., they'd put up some kind of sign, such as those that say, "CAUTION: truck crossing!"

Slow traffic: mountain goat

Also in L.A., they have freeway signs that say, "Slower traffic: keep right."

Oh well. At least we got our money's worth, because obviously, we weren't in L.A.!

We did not hike from the Hidden Lake Overlook down to Hidden Lake because climbing back up would have required deep breathing, which didn’t seem like a good idea in the smoky air. Vistas remained hazy every one of the eight days we spent between Glacier National Park and the adjacent Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, but we were lucky to see one black bear, two moose, four grizzlies, a dozen deer, lots of squirrels and chipmunks, and many, many more bighorn sheep in several different locations.

All the shuttle drivers we encountered during our visit were highly professional, helpful, and friendly. They said that the park was usually much more crowded on weekends days than week days. At each stop, they radioed to the dispatcher the number of people waiting for rides in each direction, if any, for faster service. 

We’d love to go back to Glacier National Park in other seasons!

Update as of September 1, 2017:
Since we came home from Glacier, they closed the lodge at Lake McDonald one month early due to concern for the health of the staff, who had been exposed daily to smoke from the nearby Sprague Fire. All trails around and from Lake McDonald had been closed since the fire. Then that fire grew a little larger. Now it has destroyed the historic Sperry Chalet, located in the back country about seven miles from Lake McDonald. What a sad day for the park and all who have enjoyed staying at the Chalet through the years.

Hungry marmot

Footnotes

* Ten days before our arrival, a thunderstorm had generated some 150 lightning strikes, some of which started three wildfires in the park, including near the western end of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. More wildfires had already been burning or started burning afterwards outside of the western boundary of the park.

Fire is a natural process that improves habitat for many wildlife species and maintains certain forest types. In Glacier National Park, fires burn every year. Unless they threaten structures, fires are allowed to run their natural course as an integral part of managing ecosystems. Wildfires that start in summer may burn until snow falls.

** Implying that any marmot was on the trail, let alone that it almost got stepped on, is a grumpy exaggeration. The closest marmot was on the grass next to the boardwalk.

For more info:

For students to learn more about wildfires: Fire-in-Depth by the U.S. National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/fire/wildland-fire/learning-center/fire-in-depth/wildfire-causes.cfm

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK: Hike to Hidden Lake by Tom Scheaffer

https://theintrepidtourist.blogspot.com/2016/07/?m=0

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Montana: A Place to Renew Your Spirit by Caroline Arnold

https://theintrepidtourist.blogspot.com/2012/10/glacier-national-park-montana-place-to.html

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Hike to Hidden Lake: Guest Post by Tom Scheaffer

Beginning of trail to Hidden Lake, Glacier National Park

My brother Tom recently revisited a favorite family vacation spot from when we were growing up. His report of his hike to Hidden Lake in Glacier National Park is below. For more about our original trip, including excerpts from my vacation diary, go to my post for 10/22/12.

Tom at Hidden Lake overlook

A few weeks ago I returned to my favorite national park, Glacier, located in the northwest corner of Montana. In August 1961, when I was eleven, my family went on a camping trip to Glacier and one of our activities was a hike to Hidden Lake at the top of Logan Pass.

I wanted to do the same hike now fifty-five years later. The alpine beauty is as stunning as it was and seemed unchanged. This time I had to hike over snow most of the way as I climbed up to the lake. I saw mountain goats just as I had when I was eleven, and was still as excited as ever to see them.

Mountain goat with radio collar

Many of the goats now have radio collars because they are being studied to see how far they range in their habitat. I also saw marmots along the path. After a mile and a half hike I reached the same overlook of Hidden Lake where my father took one of our favorite photos (a slide) many years ago.

Hidden Lake, 1961

Our family, on hike to Virginia Falls with a park ranger, 1961

Returning to Logan Pass was an easy downhill slide over the snowfields. At the pass the classic red Glacier Park buses were now arriving with busloads of hikers.

Glacier Park bus at Logan Pass

 For high alpine scenery, Glacier National Park can’t be beat and even though it is a bit off the beaten track, I highly recommend visiting this jewel in our national park system.

Lake St. Mary, Glacier National Park

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Montana: A Place to Renew Your Spirit

Hidden Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana

Recently, I came upon an article about Glacier National Park promoting it as a place to go to renew your spirit and it brought back memories of my trip to Glacier with my family in 1961. We drove from our home in Minneapolis across North Dakota and most of Montana to get there and spent a week camping in the park, sleeping in our umbrella tent and cooking on our camp stove and over the fire. As I still do when I travel, I kept a diary of the trip.  My parents saved the diary, and I found it recently when I was going through some old family photo albums. My entries note both our activities of the day and more mundane issues such as the weather and what we ate for dinner. (In one entry I describe making peach cobbler over the campfire. In another, I tell how I burned all the lamb chops for dinner!)  I have put some excerpts of our daily activities below. Bear in mind that I was seventeen when I wrote them! For information about visiting the park today go to the National Parks website for Glacier at http://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm.

Glacier National Park 

Excerpts from Caroline’s 1961 Vacation Log
August 5
We entered Glacier at 1:00.  Our campsite is nice, near St. Mary (Rising Sun Campground) and after it was set up we swam at Lost Lake, a beautiful, cool, but refreshing lake at the bottom of a mountain.

August 6
We first went to Sun Point and then walked to Baring Falls.  The walk was so pretty we used up all the film in the cameras! 

Hike to Virginia Falls with Ranger

 August 7
We got up early for a 9:00 hike to Virginia Falls.  Since no one else was there, we got a specially guided tour by the ranger.  The hike didn’t really seem like six miles because he knew so much and made it sound so interesting.  We ate our lunch on a beautiful grassy ledge about half way up the falls, where we were continually sprayed with mist.

August 8
Most of today was spent in the car recuperating from yesterday’s hike. ... We stopped at Avalanche campground and went on a self-guided nature trail and saw a bear.

August 9
The clouds descended and the rain poured forth as I stayed in my tent all morning reading,  ignoring the deluge in hopes that it would desist. [I was reading the Scarlet Letter, which today sounds like rather ambitious summer reading.  Perhaps it inspired my rather ambitious prose.]

August 10
We took a somewhat leisurely hike back to Hidden Lake for lunch, photographing wildflowers along the way.  We saw three ptarmigan, who were so tame that I got within eight feet to take a picture.  By the same rock on the way back Steve and I saw a hoary marmot, but he, not being so friendly, ducked into his hole before we could photograph him. 

August 11
This morning we arose bright and early for our hike along the Garden Wall.  For the first hour and a half it was rather chilly because of being in the shade of the mountain.  Later the valley dropped below us, revealing a spectacular view, at one point all the way to the end of Lake McDonald.  After four and a half hours of easy walking, with the exception of one switchback, we stopped for a picnic lunch within view of the Granite Park chalet. The last three and half miles went surprisingly fast.  After recuperating for an hour at the chalet with a 35 cent piece of pie, we descended to the end of the trail.

August 12
After lunch we decided to go to Waterton Lakes National Park [the Canadian side of Glacier National Park.] After four miles, however, we got a flat tire, out in the middle of nowhere. [As I remember, the only road connecting the parks was rough gravel.]  The trip, when we finally arrived was worth it, for the scenery was beautiful and the Prince of Wales Hotel was just like a castle out of an old English storybook.

I have fond memories of the Glacier trip and remember the park for its spectacular scenery and as a place not overcrowded with tourists.  Several years ago, one of my brothers returned to Glacier and went back to many of the same places we visited in 1961.  One difference now is that the glaciers, for which the park is named, are rapidly melting due to global warming.  Nevertheless, it is still one of our most beautiful national parks and a perfect place for renewing your spirit at any time of year.