Hello lovelies! Welcome back to my blog! Today I’m going to virtually take you to my favorite national park (till now ;P) in the US! Last weekend I visited Glacier National park, Montana for 3 days and man, that place is literally heaven on earth! :O Almost everything involves hiking at least 4-5 miles be it a glacier or a waterfall or a lake, but this is the only place that I’ve been to where the journey is as beautiful as the destination! We hiked on an average of 40 miles during this entire trip and my under-developed calf muscles are not so under-developed anymore 😀 During this time of the year, the entire area is filled with wildflowers and it’s so hard to believe that a place can be naturally that beautiful! And the Going-to-the-Sun road and most of the hikes are completely open only around the first week of July so this would be the best time of the year to visit the park if you want to hike amongst snow-capped mountains and visit a bunch of gushing waterfalls 🙂
Moving on to the details of the trip, we flew to Spokane and drove to the park and spent around 3.5 days in the park. Here’s our itinerary –
Day 1 – Hidden Lake Hike
Day 2- Iceberg lake Hike
Day 3 – Grinnel Glacier Hike, Baring Falls, St. Mary’s Falls
Day 4 – Avalanche Lake Hike
Day 1 – Hidden Lake Hike
We flew to Spokane in the night and drove to Glacier National Park on the next day morning. We drove through the Going-To-The-Sun road (which has out-of-the-world views) and stopped at various spots including the weeping wall where our car got a well deserved wash 😀 and we reached Logan Pass around 8pm. The hidden lake is about a 5-mile hike and at this time of the year (first week of July) the boardwalk was covered with about 6-7 feet of snow. We started hiking up around 8.30 and later realized that it wasn’t a very bright idea to hike in the dark AND in snow. When we were about 50 meters from the lookout, a spectacularly muscular mountain goat decided to have the lookout all for himself and didn’t let us hike up to the top 😐 Since we didn’t want to trigger him more, we just waited and watched sunset by a small pond near the lookout (which was amazing nonetheless) and hiked back to our car without slipping into the snow filled mountain slopes (YAY!) We stayed at this place – Circle R motel near the East Glacier entrance and called it a rather adventurous night 🙂
Day 2 – Iceberg Lake Trail
We drove up to the Many Glacier area through this valley which was so green and vast that I had never seen anything like that before! When we reached the trail head, the turquoise lakes surrounded by the snow capped mountains were just too beautiful to be real! Seriously guys, I fell head over heels in love with this place and I’m definitely gonna go back! This particular Iceberg lake trail had opened just a week before our visit. The roundtrip is around 10.8 miles and most of it was open through the valley! The views were spectacular and the hills were filled with beargrass and wildflowers throughout the way! We had to hike through a small portion of snow here and there but we were pros now after our previous hike 😉 And when we reached the lake, I knew that was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen! Huge chunks of ice floating on a lake that was surrounded by snowcapped mountains, I wish I never had to leave that place 😦 Trust me when I say that pictures do no justice to that lake, it is absolutely breathtaking! We stayed there for an hour or so and hiked back (with a heavy heart and extremely sore feet) and called it a day.
Day 3 – Grinnel Glacier Hike
We stayed at the same Motel that night and came back to the Many Glacier Area the next day for our Grinnel Glacier Hike. This is about 7 miles roundtrip and you can shave-off about 3.6 miles if you take the boat ride across two lakes instead of hiking around them. We hiked one way and on our way back took the boat ride (best of both worlds :P). I would recommend doing that because the hike around the lake is soo beautiful and definitely a must-do! The scenary was very different from what we had seen the previous day and more vibrant because of the turquoise lakes throughout the way! But again, once we reached the top, there was nothing like the view that we saw! Miles and miles of snow capped mountains and waterfalls at every turn and this turquoise lake that sat in the middle of this scene stealing the show! It was a million dollar view you guys! We spent sometime there and headed to see the Baring Falls and St Mary’s falls. They were about 4 miles roundtrip and definitely worth seeing! By that time our legs had officially given up on us and we basically limped back to our Hotel – Best Western Rocky Mountain Lodge at West Glacier for the night.
Day 4 – Avalanche Lake
We had initially planned to just chill by Lake McDonald till Afternoon and head back to Spokane on the last day. We realized that this Avalanche lake was the only other must-see place in the park and we couldn’t leave it as unfinished business. So with the little life left in our legs, we decided to do the 5 mile hike and see this place! Aaand once we reached the lake, we didn’t regret that decision! This lake was sitting there enveloped by mountains on all sides and fed by about 5-6 waterfalls that were flowing down from the snow capped peaks! Oh my, I would call this place the definition of “beauty” <3. It is forever etched in our hearts. We took the last wisp of breath of mountain air before returning back to earth(California) from that raw and unearthly beauty 🙂
I know I went overboard with the pictures, but I just couldn’t choose! Every picture was post-card worthy and you should definitely visit this place if you had a chance! I will see you guys again here with a fashion post next week. Stay tuned 🙂
Until next time,
Mal
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