Glacier Part 2

So, by this point, Glacier had thoroughly charmed us. This is the part where it exhausts and humbles us.

So, we wake up from the adventures before to go on our one big hike of the trip. After some research, we delegated for none other than The Highline; one of the most popular hikes in the park. It coasts the mountainside above the Going To The Sun Road and leading weary hikers to a gorgeous glacial overlook. For this hike, we woke up at around five in the morning to get ready and have a light breakfast before heading to Logan Pass and claiming a parking spot for the day. As mentioned in the previous post, parking is quite competitive; which was one of our main motivators for arriving early. The other was the length of the hike, which amounts to approximately 18 miles. Most arrive at around the time that we did, and we were ready to depart around 6:45 in the morning.

I had delegated to dress in layers for the hike, as the mountain mornings can be quite cool before the summer heat awakens in the afternoon. I had mittens, shorts under my leggings, and a heavy pullover over a tank top so that I could shed layers as I heated up as the day went on. This actually ended up being my absolute saving grace, as this ended up being the most difficult hike of my entire life.

However, I digress, we were off from Logan Pass to coast the mountainside and glacial streams. We were met with beautiful views, mountain goat and mule deer sightings, and even some mountain snow (which we stopped to put some in our hats on the way back to cool off). We sipped out coffees and made our way along The Highline, stopping for granola breakfast breaks. The sun slowly greeted us over the horizon, rapidly unthawing the cool morning.

A mountain goat peacefully grazing (it was not bellowing in this picture, we just timed it perfectly and accidentally mid-chew), Lake McDonald can be seen in the distance

Towards the "there" portion of the hike, we were faced with a fork in the trail. One direction went to a chalet that we could see in the distance, and the other lead to a glacial overlook. The sign read that the glacial overlook was 0.4 miles of steep and consistent incline up the mountain, to a point of mountain referred to as The Garden Wall. We delegated for the glacial overlook, and this was the harshest part of the hike. My partner and I are very physically fit, and are no stranger to daunting hikes. However, we were not ready for this one. The incline ended up being closer to an entire mile completely uphill than it was 0.4, but was it ever worth it.

When we arrived to what I can only describe as the summit, we were greeted with the most magnificent view of Grinell Glacier that we could have hoped for. We saw our most genuine and fresh example of blue glacial water to date. Glacier water is quite fascinating, as it has a lot to do with the criteria that lies between snow field and official glacier.

To summarize, glaciers actually move under their own weight. There are actually striations in the mountainside and other rock formations where you can see the direction of movement that the glacier has gone throughout the thousands of years before it. It pulverizes the rock beneath it, creating what is known as rock flour. This rock flour has the consistency of cooking flour, and seeps into the melting glacial runoff. This rock flour becomes suspended in the water. Between the water and the flour itself, all colors excluding the infamous glacial blue are eliminated from the visible light spectrum. The same phenomenon can be seen in areas such as the Great Lakes (which were also formed from glaciers).

We stayed with the above view for about half an hour, eating lunch and resting our weary legs before beginning the long trek back to Logan Pass.

While on the subject of Logan Pass and the continental divide, or triple divide to some. If you took a bottle of water and poured it at this point, it will go to three places. It will follow into the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Some of it will drain into the Nelson river and eventually end up in Hudson Bay. Some of it will also flow into the Flathead river and end up in the Pacific Ocean. This is incredibly rare in nature and can only be found in a couple of other places in the entire world.

So yeah, that's my all-time favorite fact about Logan Pass. Our hike was a total of 18 miles and I have never been more exhausted or sore from a hike in my life. It was beautiful, but this one humbled me. Needless to say, we slept like rocks that night.

The next day, we did absolutely no hiking and hung out at the Many Glacier Lodge all day. This is the only point in our trip where we had wifi, were able to charge our devices from an outlet, and bask in the AC (although we did favor the rocking chairs on the deck of the lodge most of the time). We noticed that they had incredibly affordable canoe rentals and we could not resist. We spent the entirety of this day relaxing, recovering, and sipping huckleberry beer (which is renowned in northern states, as it can only grow in higher altitudes and climates).

Canoeing on Swiftcurrent Lake, the oval-shaped blob in the background is Gem Glacier

The next day was our last in the park and we were eager to get some last-minute must-dos out of the way before we left. We hiked Trail of the Cedars and Avalanche Lake, and spent a little bit of time at the Lake McDonald Lodge. The Trail of the Cedars is the only wheelchair accessible hike in the park. It is a beautiful boardwalk the leads to Avalanche Gorge, and it is there that one can continue to Avalanche Lake if they so choose.

Avalanche Gorge; which pictures do not do justice for the power of this gush of water

A stream that accompanies Trail of the Cedars to Avalanche Lake

I simply had to walk in the lake, as it would be our last hike of the trip. We hung out on the beach, basking in the sun and letting the freezing glacial water cool us.

However, there was still one more activity to do before we ended our GPS activities. We had reserved a boat tour on Lake MacDonald back in February when we were planning the trip, and it was finally time. We set out on the tour on GPS's largest boat to take in the sites and hear some of the park's history and famous folklore.

One of my favorite part of this boat tour is the discovery of lake houses on the lake itself. There are roughly ten of them and they are all owned by different families that had settler lineage dating back hundreds of years. The US government mandates that the owners of the houses are not allowed to rent out, sell, or otherwise delegate these houses outside of their families. They are passed down from generation to generation and there are even instances of actual infants owning the houses! I thought this was interesting and, of course, am incredibly jealous of these families. Could you imagine having a lake house on Lake fucking Macdonald? A dream for sure, we even saw some of them boating on the lake in their personal motor boats.

Leaving Glacier was bittersweet. I was exhausted, sore, and oh-so ready for an actual shower. On the other hand, I never wanted to leave the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire life. I loved all that I saw, learned, and experienced here. It is truly a magical place and must be protected at all costs.

They say that the glaciers in this magnificent park will no longer reach glacier status in 10-20 years from now and they will become permanent snowfields.

We must do more to protect our planet, to nourish her as she has nourished us