What a place Glacier National Park is!
The Elanthian Ranger Corps had been planning a section of the Pacific Crest Trail in August '99, but the snow levels in the Cascades this year put us off that agenda. Instead, off we went to Glacier National Park, after some quick research. Very useful were a new find, "Trailmonkey," and once you dug for it, there's some great info on the Park Service's site, too.
For planning a trip to Glacier from afar, the biggest concern is that backcountry camping in almost all the park is in reserved permitted limited campsites. About half of these can be reserved in advance, the remainder are reserved by showing up at the ranger station at 7:00 am the morning before your trip begins, and try your luck. There's long distances between some of the campsites and if you can't get one camp, it can make a whole trip impossible, or require truly grueling long days. We met people doing some of those to put their trips together, as well as seeing some folks doing really long day hikes so they could see parts of the park without the camping permit hassles. Advance reservations can be made beginning April 15th by mail - it wouldn't hurt to plan a trip that way. Details are findable on Glacier Park's website.
Our trip:
One of the nicer surprises was just how close (relatively) Glacier is to Seattle. It's the Rockies, and the Rockies to me has always meant driving to Colorado, which is 1400 miles plus. To Glacier was only around 550, mostly on fine freeway. Unpleasant surprise was the crappy weather when we got there! We fussed with trail reservations, changing our initial ones before finally hitting the trail two days after getting to the park (we waited out the rain, for one thing - had planned day hikes, but hung out in the Many Glacier Lodge instead, watching rain on the windows).
There are shuttle services in the park, a specific hiker shuttle, for pretty reasonable fees. Our first trip would take us from over on the West side of the continental divide and eventually back to Many Glacier, a one way trip facilitated by the shuttle. Alas.. the shuttle was booked up. Happily, the kids working at the lodges are used to this, and it wasn't too hard to find one willing to drive us over for a fare similar to the shuttle.. and we got to our destination directly, too. Ask the bell captain or the front desk if you find yourself in these circumstances, and remember to reserve a spot on the shuttle early, too!
So, Tuesday the 17th of August, we started hiking from "Packer's Roost," headed for our first camp at Flattop. An easy first day, under seven miles and about 2000' of gain.
 |
A ways up the valley starting our hike, we ran into the first of a few suspension bridges we would cross during our stay. They're not scary rotten hemp third world bridges, but neither are they the big heavy bridges I know, at Carbon Glacier and (now crushed by snow) at Enchanted Valley. In fact, these bridges are marked "load limit, one hiker at a time." They are removed (rolled up?) for the winter - maybe something Olympic Park should look into with their recent bridge record? |
Our hike progressed up through a few openings but mostly in the woods, with a few peeks of peaks of in the direction of Logan Pass and the Going to the Sun Road, and some nice flowers and water trickles.
And then we found our first Glacier Park camp. I'm learning to take more pictures of the trail instead of just the views from the trail, so hikers can see what the trail is like.. I'm wishing I'd taken more pictures of these camps. There's a map, showing the tent sites, and where the potty is and where the cooking area is and where the bear bagging spot is. Having seen a Grizzly bear from the car before we left to start hiking, we were plenty happy with strict rules about no food or cooking or eating in camp areas. It's sure a different experience to be backcountry camping and have a clearly established cooking area with logs to sit on and other tent sites often quite close. More on this as we go along.
Next Day 18 August Flattop to FiftyMountain w/ Sue Overlook
19 August FiftyMountain to Granite Park w/ Ahern Pass
20 August Granite Park to Many Glacier w/ Swiftcurrent Lookout
21 August Laundry Day, Lake Overlook
22 August Waterton, Canada
23 August MacDonald Lake to Sperry Chalet
24 August Sperry to Gunsight Lake
25 August Gunsight Lake to... Great Falls!
Return Car tour
Summation
More progress made as of 17 December