#11 Hiking? Wildlife?

We Have Our Hiking Map, Our Hiking Legs, Let’s Go!

My friend, Janet, loaned me the most amazing and comprehensive hiking map for Glacier National Park. Months ago I looked over each of the 88 hikes. I quickly crossed off all the ones over 5 miles. I knew Pam wouldn’t want to go that far (wink wink). That left 28 hikes. Then I eliminated all the hikes that said, “steep climb.” The only thing I like to steep is my tea.

For those interested, the map was made by Jake Bramante. He’s the only one to hike all 734 miles of trails within the park. You can get the map on http://www.hike734.com. I would advise it if you intend to hike in Glacier National Park. I’ll have a second piece of advice later in this blog. Thanks for the map Janet.

The East Side And The West Side

You can enter glacier in at least four different places. Three of those entries are on the east side of the park. It’s an hour to 2 hour car ride to any of the east side entries from the West side.

The Many Glacier Entrance is 2+ hours away. Many Glacier is supposed to be spectacular; it’s a “Must see” when you visit the park. However, after multiple online tries I could not snag a shuttle pass or boat pass or a trip to jail do not pass Go and do not collect $200 pass into Many Glacier. The ordeal annoyed me and I wrote off the east side. If you know me (and you probably do if you’re reading this) you also know it takes a lot for me to get annoyed.

7 Exciting West Side Hikes to Do

I showed the map and all the chosen hikes to Pam to confirm her excitement. The day before hike day I did my due diligence to seek an online timed entry into the West Glacier Entrance. The next morning, we packed our backpack, said goodbye to Lucca and away we went for hiking and wildlife hunting, oh boy!

Do Not Enter Without… This Means You

We made it through the first guarded entrance with our America the Beautiful pass and a few miles up the road we made it through the second guarded entrance with our timed entry code which put us on the Going To The Sun Road. Some of you may be thinking that this is too much work for a few hours of fun hiking. I can go to the Blue Ridge Mountains and hike all day and night without this hassle. But this is sought after Glacier National Park. We traveled 3000 miles to get here.

What Could Possibly Stop Us From Hiking?

The big honkin truck climbed admirably up and through the turns and swerves of Going to the Sun Road to our first hiking spot.

Do you see a parking space? We didn’t either. In fact, there were two other parking areas and they were full too. Okay, Next.

We left and continued up the Going to The Sun Road to our second spot. “Trail of the cedars is a really good one”, I told Pam. I was trying to brighten the mood.

Once again, no place to park in designated spaces. There were cars parked for half a mile or more up the roadside. I asked Pam to park illegally so I could go to the bathroom. When I got out, no cars had left and more were coming. Frustrated, we headed back down the mountain to our third spot which had several hikes. Those hikes should keep us busy. The hikes all started at Park Headquarters where Pam could also stop and get her America The Beautiful pass. It’s one of the benefits for turning that delicate age.

Take a look. No parking, no hike, no senior pass.

On our way out of the West entrance, the line of cars with timed entry sitting at the access point looked more like a construction stoppage on a major highway.

After a long tiring unfulfilled day behind the wheel of the big honkin’ truck, what was left to do?

Plan D

The Gunsight Saloon in Columbia Falls soothed our troubled hearts.

Both with smiles again, we headed to the KOA and saw a sign for the Hungry Horse Dam. “Why not?”

Beautiful, Right? A charming way to enjoy the beauty in areas that are little known and often overlooked.

We concluded our day with a nice fireside gathering that evening.

Together Again

The next morning we got together for mimosas, cinnamon rolls, sausage rolls, piggies in a blanket and checkers.

You could say there’s a bit of a checker rivalry between Robert and Dave. The competition began at Lake McDonald and days later, the match continued. We won’t know if Dave gets the upper hand because we will be leaving the group tomorrow. They’ll be headed west and we are going north. But not so fast, we still have a rafting trip down the Middle Flathead River. You won’t want to miss it as I take the plunge into 60 degree water. Come along…