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Glacier National Park: Many Glacier Area
It’s September 2012 and I’ve made the trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. I met my cousin Kay and her husband Matt in Great Falls and we’ve made the drive to the east side of the park. Here we met up with Nora and Bill. Nora is Kay’s cousin on her father’s side. We’ll all be visiting various areas in the park for the next five days. Our first three nights will be at the Many Glacier Hotel.
The weather is just beautiful! 70s in the daytime, close to freezing overnight, but the sun is out and the sky is blue.
The mountain pictures start with early morning views as the sun is rising. There is no or very little wind so the reflections are gorgeous.
Our first hike the first morning is a one-miler to Apikuni Falls, where we see one of many warnings about bears. (Actually, we got four or five lectures about bears during our stay, and the first couple of mornings in the park there were a bunch of cars off the side of the road trying to catch glimpses of the bears that were there. The rangers were trying to ensure the people and bears stayed separated!)
It’s the end of the season and there is not much snow in the park, but there are still a few glaciers to be seen. However, climate conditions being what they are, it’s estimated that the glaciers will disappear by 2020–only eight years from now. Very sad.
Kay, Matt, and I make the full trek and are rewarded with very pretty falls. Then it’s back to the hotel and off on a boat ride on Swiftcurrent Lake–the lake the hotel is on. This ride takes us to a dock where we hike over a ridge and catch another boat for a ride on Lake Josephine. At the end of Josephine (empty dock picture below), Matt and I join some others for a hike to Grinnell Lake. This was another mile or so.
Just before getting to the lake, there’s a suspension bridge that was fun. Then, the lake. Just beautiful! Worth the walk, but this was all a bit much for me on the first day and my legs and feet were really hurting by the time we got back on the boat. After reversing our path, taking another hike and getting on the final boat leg back to the hotel, we were rewarded by seeing a moose munching happily on the water plants. Great way to end the day’s adventures!
