Had a nice visit in Glacier over the past few days. I rolled up to Fish Creek Campground and found a nice site that wasn’t booked for four nights, so I took the lot. The day of arrival I took a quick hike via Avalanche to Avalanche Lake. The Road to the Sun was closed from there, so no more to drive.
Day 2 I took a longer hike to Snyder Lake. 4.4 miles with 2500ft elevation gain, one way. 2 hours out (uphill), 1 hour in (downhill). Pretty sure I saw bear scat on the trail, and another couple hiking that I caught up with mentioned they saw one. I also found an auto parts store to replace a headlight, and stopped at Glacier Distillery to buy some local whiskey—not just locally made, but made from local ingredients too. Really cool ethos there. Oh and quite good booze.
Day 3 was pouring rain, so I took a driving tour to the east side of the Park, St Mary’s. Nice playful winding road to get up there, but sadly the road was still closed only 2 miles in from the entrance, so not much to see. There was a goat herd on the side of a hill, which was cool.
Day 4 was pouring rain again, so I took a driving tour up to the north-west corner of the park. The Polebridge Mercantile was like a mirage, unbelievable that after all that unpaved and muddy road anything exists, let alone a good off-grid bakery (where you have to pack out your own trash since there’s no service). I thought that 25 mile gravel road into Polebridge was rough. Then I hit the 6 miles of muddy winding track to get to Bowman Lake. Glad I was in 4WD! I hiked for about forty minutes along the lake trail before giving up after getting soaked and walking back the remaining forty minutes. Everything was waterproof except for my pants, which were just wet and cold.
Overall I thought Glacier was beautiful, but I really felt I was missing its key feature, the Road to the Sun, with it still being cleared of snow. Guess I’ll have to come back.
Enough of this rain – time to head south. At least I got to play with fire. Long exposures while blowing on the embers. Cool.
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