Hiking Thread

#377
#377
Volosaurus rex said:
Have you spent any time in the Bighorn Mountains in northeastern Wyoming, particularly up around Cloud Peak and the medicine wheel on Medicine Mountain? That area would complement the Black Hills superbly. The Snowy Range Road, located in the Medicine Bow mountains in southeastern Wyoming, is another very pretty drive that is not heavily traversed (see http://www.travelwyoming.com/listing/centennial/snowy-range-scenic-byway). If you ever make it down there in the fall, be sure to stop at "Aspen Alley" (http://saratogachamber.info/play-here/things-to-do/scenic-byways/). The aspen which border that road are so perfectly aligned that you would think that the Creator used a ruler to position them.
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Medicine Bow range is amazing. Heading up Medicine Bow and Sugarloaf is a nice hike. Great camping, too.
 
#379
#379
So this appears to be the only appropriate thread to ask this question in. I am going to Montana in August. I will be staying in Kalispell for a few days, a little Northwest of Browning for a week, and making a day trip to Waterton in Canada. Any suggestions on trails, peaks, rapids, falls, etc. that are a must? I know the main ones like Going to the Sun Road and seeing Flathead Lake, etc. Just figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
 
#382
#382
WilliamDuVol, that topic is a most worthy thread unto itself. In order to prioritize how best to respond to your questions, let’s establish a few parameters. Precisely how many days do you have available for hiking in Glacier? How would you describe your current fitness level? Will you be traveling alone or with other people, whose interests and/or physical conditioning must be taken into consideration for planning purposes? Are you interested in day hikes only or would you be potentially interested in an overnight pack trip? Finally, how averse are you to the possibility of bear encounters, particularly those with grizzlies?

As a rule of thumb, the west side of the park is more heavily forested than the east side, and the northern half of the park is more rugged than the southern half. Taking those two factors into consideration, the Many Glacier valley, located in the northeastern sector, certainly should be a region of emphasis. If you are going to Waterton Lake, you will be taking the Chief Mountain Road. It is too bad that you won’t be there in September. The Aspen groves at the base of Chief Mountain then become absolutely ablaze with color, as do the shores of Lower St. Mary Lake, as well as Many Glacier and Two Medicine valleys. In any event, Chief Mountain is most impressive in any season, given the fact that it stands like a lone sentinel, apart from the main range.

Many Glacier offers a host of great day hikes, but it is also prime grizzly habitat. One of the most popular in that region is the Iceberg Lake trail (9.7 miles roundtrip; see http://www.hikinginglacier.com/iceberg-lake.htm). From the Logan Pass visitor center, you could take the Hidden Lake trail; it is an easy 2.7-mile roundtrip hike to the overlook, but becomes a more strenuous 8.05-mile roundtrip, with more significant elevation loss and then gain, if you go all the way to the lake and back (see http://www.hikinginglacier.com/hidden-lake-overlook.htm and http://www.hikinginglacier.com/hidden-lake.htm). If you are up to an all-day challenge, try the Highline Trail, sometimes referenced as the Garden Wall Trail (http://www.hikinginglacier.com/highline-trail.htm). It goes from Logan Pass to the Granite Park chalet (7.6 miles one-way), is quite strenuous, and is above timberline virtually the whole way.

That is enough for an introduction. As noted above, I will post more in several followup segments.
 
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#383
#383
Staying topically within the Many Glacier area, are you open to exchanging your pack for a saddle? Trail rides, ranging in length from one hour to all day, are available from the parking lot adjacent to Many Glacier Hotel (see http://www.swanmountainoutfitters.com/glacier/rates-and-trips-at-a-glance/). Incidentally, based on location alone, the Many Glacier Hotel should be targeted for at least one luncheon or dinner. Where are you staying within or around the park? The historic lodges at Many Glacier, East Glacier and Lake McDonald all book up many months ahead of last-minute efforts to reserve them. You definitely will want to see the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton Lakes NP; it stands on a most impressive promontory.
 
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#384
#384
Volosaurus rex said:
For those who frequent this thread, here is an interesting question to get opinions on: What is the single most spectacular vista/landscape you have ever seen? Needless to say, that is a different question than simply identifying your favorite national park or vacation spot. Examples of what I have in mind are the Snake River Overlook in Grand Teton NP, the Maroon Bells as viewed from Maroon Lake, Glacier Point overlook in Yosemite NP, etc.
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I've had limited chance to explore the parks, but my most inspiring I've been to is a tie at Yosemite between Glacier Point and the view after you come out of the tunnel.
 

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#385
#385
If you are a photographer, the Wild Goose Island Overlook, which is depicted by Smallvol#1 in post no. 371, is the signature vista of Glacier National Park and deserves an extended visit. If you are staying on the east side of the park, keep apprised of weather forecasts. Depending on cloud cover, you could get some extraordinary sunrise or sunset views from that overlook.
 
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#386
#386
Volosaurus rex said:
WilliamDuVol, that topic is a most worthy thread unto itself. In order to prioritize how best to respond to your request, let’s establish a few parameters. Precisely how many days do you have available for hiking in Glacier? How would you describe your current fitness level? Are you interested in day hikes only or would you be potentially interested in an overnight pack trip? Finally, how averse are you to the possibility of bear encounters, particularly those with grizzlies?

As a rule of thumb, the west side of the park is more heavily forested than the east side, and the northern half of the park is more rugged than the southern half. Taking those two factors into consideration, the Many Glacier valley, located in the northeastern sector, certainly should be a region of emphasis. If you are going to Waterton Lake, you will be taking the Chief Mountain Road. It is too bad that you won’t be there in September. The Aspen groves at the base of Chief Mountain then become absolutely ablaze with color, as do the shores of Lower St. Mary Lake, as well as Many Glacier and Two Medicine valleys. In any event, Chief Mountain is most impressive in any season, given the fact that it stands like a lone sentinel, apart from the main range.

Many Glacier offers a host of great day hikes, but it is also prime grizzly habitat. One of the most popular in that region is the Iceberg Lake trail (9.7 miles roundtrip; see http://www.hikinginglacier.com/iceberg-lake.htm). From the Logan Pass visitor center, you could take the Hidden Lake trail; it is an easy 2.7-mile roundtrip hike to the overlook, but becomes a more strenuous 8.05-mile roundtrip, with more significant elevation gain, if you go all the way to the lake and back (see http://www.hikinginglacier.com/hidden-lake-overlook.htm and http://www.hikinginglacier.com/hidden-lake.htm). If you are up to an all-day challenge, try the Highline Trail, sometimes referenced as the Garden Wall Trail (http://www.hikinginglacier.com/highline-trail.htm). It goes from Logan Pass to the Granite Park chalet (7.6 miles one-way), is quite strenuous, and is above timberline virtually the whole way.

That is enough for an introduction. As noted above, I will post more in several followup segments.
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Thank you. My only visit to Glacier was 15 years ago and I was having trouble remembering which hikes I did. Clicking on the links I realize it was Iceberg Lake and Hidden Lake.
 
#387
#387
“The [Running Eagle Falls] trail is a wide, well maintained path suitable for everyone in the family. [Only 0.6 miles in length, it’s] also one of two trails in the park that's handicap accessible. The Trail of the Cedars on the west side of Glacier National Park is the other.

The trailhead for Running Eagle Falls is located 1.1 miles west of the Two Medicine entrance station,” which is located in the southeastern corner of the park (http://www.hikinginglacier.com/running-eagle-falls.htm).

If you would like a far more adventurous challenge, try the Two Medicine Pass Trail. To quote my previous description of this trail, “I would have to say that the view from Two Medicine Pass in Glacier National Park still reigns supreme. You will definitely pay a price in sweat for that view. From the trailhead to Two Medicine Pass, the trail traverses 7.9 miles (one-way) and climbs about 2,300 feet. Two Medicine Pass is right on the Continental Divide in an area that the Blackfeet called the “Backbone of the World.” Standing at the pass, you can look back to the northeast and see three lakes stairstepping their way down Two Medicine valley and, beyond that, out onto the Northern Plains. Turning to the northwest, the peaks that straddle the Continental Divide are visible for as far as the eye can see. To the southwest, a stream appears like a silver ribbon, snaking its way across the valley 3,000 feet below you.

And this isn’t even the most spectacular part of Glacier, according to veteran backpackers. The Boulder Pass Trail in the extreme northwestern corner of the park holds that distinction.”
 
#389
#389
Incidentally, visitors to Glacier in the summer can shave significant distances off the network of trails that weave through the Many Glacier valley by taking shuttle boat service across Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine (see http://glacierparkboats.com/tour/many-glacier/). Some of these packaged trips are available as ranger-guided tours, depending on trail conditions. The distinctive mountain in the background of this image is Mount Gould; its profile has led many to compare this part of Glacier NP to the Swiss Alps.

This image should illustrate why Grinnell Lake is another of the many popular hiking destinations in Many Glacier: https://www.jameskay.com/landscape-...tana.html#NP=608715bfd1456ba659bed5806e812b56.
 
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#390
#390
William, if you haven’t already purchased them, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding them at any visitor center in Glacier, but I highly recommend the following Trails Illustrated maps for planning and reference purposes:

215: Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks ($11.95) http://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-map...ana/glacier-and-waterton-lakes-national-parks

313: North Fork: Glacier National Park ($9.95) http://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-map...maps/montana/north-fork-glacier-national-park

314: Many Glacier: Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks ($9.95) http://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-map...ier-glacier-and-waterton-lakes-national-parks

315: Two Medicine: Glacier National Park ($9.95) http://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-map...ps/montana/two-medicine-glacier-national-park

The three regional maps can be purchased as a set for $25.95. http://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-map...ton-lakes-national-parks-map-pack-bundle-8928
 
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#391
#391
If you would like references for trail guides to Glacier, two excellent ones are:

Hiking Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks: A Guide To The Parks’ Greatest Hiking Adventures by Erik Molvar ($16.65 new from Amazon.com) https://www.amazon.com/Hiking-Glaci...eywords=Trail+Guides+to+Glacier+National+Park

Best Easy Day Hikes Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks (Best Easy Day Hikes Series) by Erik Molvar ($7.70 new from Amazon.com) https://www.amazon.com/Hikes-Glacie...eywords=Trail+Guides+to+Glacier+National+Park
 
#392
#392
William, where will you be staying in and around the park? As I am sure you have discovered, accommodations are more numerous and nicer on the west side of Glacier. If, however, you are in the St. Mary area, the nicest accommodation is, by far, the St. Mary Lodge & Resort (http://www.glacierparkinc.com/lodgi...utm_content=&gclid=CKPKwp_-vdQCFQaJaQodfysOpg). A most impressive back-door view, wouldn’t you say? I highly recommend the Snowgoose Grille; they offer a fine selection of local game entrees: http://www.glacierparkinc.com/brewster_travel/media/Shared/Document/Menu/SML-Dinner-WEB.pdf.

If you prefer more rustic lodging, the St. Mary KOA (http://koa.com/campgrounds/st-mary/) is quite nice and more secluded. If you visited there in late September, I can almost guarantee that you could sit on your front porch and be serenaded at sunset by bull elk bugling up in the canyons. That’s a visitor experience not to be forgotten.
 
#393
#393
Your time schedule might not permit this, but one of my most memorable experiences in Glacier’s backcountry was Mokowanis Lake in 1978. Beginning at the Chief Mountain Customs Trailhead, which is a stone’s throw from the Canadian border, and traveling via the Belly River and Stoney Indian Pass trails, Mokowanis Lake is a 14.3-mile jaunt one-way (see http://enjoyyourparks.com/GlacierParkStoneyIndianPass.html). While camped there, I saw a loon, as well as bighorn sheep or mountain goats. In both cases, I heard them before seeing them. A loon’s strange, mournful cry is one of the signature sounds of wilderness. Once you have heard it, you will never forget it and you will understand how the phrase “crazy as a loon” arose. I later heard the sound of loose shale/scree being disturbed. Even with binoculars, I couldn’t be certain whether those specks slowly moving across the distant canyon walls were bighorn or mountain goats.

Mokowanis Lake is commonly frequented by grizzly bears and I may have been visited by one early the following morning. Whatever it was, made enough noise crashing through the underbrush to have been a griz, elk or moose. Silence then ensued, followed by splashing, more silence, more splashing and so forth until my “guest” decided to leave. I lay in my tent just as quietly as I possibly could; I most certainly was not about to startle it by unzipping the tent fly, just to satisfy my curiosity.

The proverbial takehome message is that Glacier is a land to be respected. It is one of the few places in the lower 48 where we are not at the top of the food chain. Take your bear spray, bear bells are not a bad idea either and, ideally, don’t hike alone. I personally have never had trouble with bears in Glacier, but several people have not been so fortunate. Eleven people “have died from a bear attack in Glacier National Park since its creation in 1910. [And] seven grizzly fatalities [have occurred] since 2010 in the Northern Rockies” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-the-northern-rockies/?utm_term=.17789b009226).
 
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#395
#395
If physical conditioning is a limiting factor for you or any member of your party, this chart (http://www.hikinginglacier.com/hiking-glacier-national-park.htm) may be helpful in evaluating options. By their calculations, the Running Eagle Falls, Baring Falls, Trail of the Cedars, and St. Mary Falls trails are among the shortest and least challenging trails in Glacier. Trailheads for the Baring Falls and St. Mary Falls trails are directly accessible from the Going-To-The-Sun Road, approximately 10 miles west of the St. Mary Entrance Station. For what it is worth, they consider the Two Medicine Pass Trail to be the most difficult of the more than 60 trails in Glacier that they evaluated. I would not disagree. Having said that, I have not hiked the Boulder Pass Trail, nor have they included it in their rankings. For an explanation of how they reached their “Difficulty Rating” for each trail, see http://www.hikinginglacier.com/about-us.htm.

Ulysses, here is a similar chart comparing the relative difficulty of trails in Grand Teton National Park: http://www.tetonhikingtrails.com/hiking-grand-teton-national-park.htm. For Smoky Mountain hiking aficionados, here is the equivalent chart for your purposes: http://www.hikinginthesmokys.com/difficulty.htm.
 
#396
#396
Moving to the west side of the park, the “Trail of the Cedars, one of two wheelchair-accessible trails in Glacier National Park, is a loop hike that begins and ends on the Going-To-The-Sun Road, located 5.5 miles east of the Lake McDonald Lodge. Since this is an extremely popular trailhead, parking can be a [problem] during peak travel season.

Being situated on the eastern edge of the maritime climate of the Pacific Northwest, the Lake McDonald Valley also marks the extreme eastern limits for western hemlocks and red cedars. The humidity in this valley allows the cedars to grow to heights of 100 feet, and diameters of 4 to 7 feet. Some of the trees in this area are estimated to be more than 500 years old.” In short, this is a tiny little pocket of the Pacific Northwest coast, both climatically and botanically. See http://www.hikinginglacier.com/trail-of-the-cedars.htm .

If you choose to take the spur trail to Avalanche Lake, your journey will become a bit more challenging, but you ultimately will be rewarded with views of a lake that is fed by no less than five waterfalls. See http://www.hikinginglacier.com/avalanche-lake.htm.
 
#398
#398
No, I simply have been to Glacier many times, including six weeks in 1978. The isolation of Glacier and its natural grandeur make it, quite simply, a spiritually powerful landscape. And never is that more true than in late September, when the fall foliage is at its peak.

I did aspire, however, to establishing a guided tour company, one that would specialize in the Rocky Mountain West. We were never able to find any investors who were willing to provide startup capital. Nevertheless, if certain opportunities, about which I cannot speak publicly, come to pass, I will be moving to Montana this year.
 
#399
#399
William, are you going to Glacier during the first half of August or the second half of the month? In terms of equipment, be prepared for a wide range of weather conditions. So, bring your fleece and raingear. The first half of August may be the most consistently ideal weather for hiking in Glacier.

NEVolFan will be able to correct me if I am in error on this point, but it has been my experience that the second half of August through the first half of September can be highly unpredictable and quite rainy, thus signaling a transitional period in Glacier from late summer to the onset of fall. In 1978, it seemed like the park was stuck in a climatic cycle for the better part of four weeks, during which two days of rainy squalls would be followed by one good day of hiking weather and then more rainy squalls. I remember being in the St. Mary visitor center one day during that period, with nothing better to do than watch the weather instrumentation. It was gusting up to 70 miles per hour, and I distinctly recall seeing one motorcyclist who, after paying his entrance fee, was broadsided by one of those gusts; it turned him completely around and he apparently decided then and there that, perhaps, it was not the best weather to push deeper into the park.
 
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#400
#400
OK just the detail and supporting websites made me think you were one of the two. Good luck in your future endeavor
 
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