Three Glacier

Not a bad campsite that Raya and Josh found!  

This was our view from the tent.  

Of course they had to wait in line at 3am in order to get it.  But the camp hosts knock on your window at check-in time (8am), so you don't have to pull an all-nighter.  Early camper gets the worm!

We are not looking for worms... just inspecting bear poop.

Our hike today was Grinell Glacier Trail (13 miles round trip from Many Glacier Campground with a 1,600 foot elevation gain).   The hike was a mile longer than usual because the north side trail along Lake Josephine was closed due to bear activity.  Obviously the bears roam freely but when they frequent an area regularly, the National Park Service will close the trails, so bears can be bears, bears that aren't attacking people.

Danger is my middle name.

Lunch time!

The views are spectacular, as you can see.

Huckleberry picking- a favorite activity of ours.  

There aren't very many places where you can hike and get free snacks along the route, at least not in California.  I guess danger is all of our middle names, we are competing with bears for their food.  Looking back, I am not sure if it is a good idea.

More icebergs!  I love iceberg lakes (once again, I am not happy that the glaciers are melting, but it sure looks neat).

This is the baby toe polar bear plunge.  It is a challenge to get in at all, let alone wait for a picture.  So I am much tougher than I look. 

Cold water hurts.

Raya is tough too.  Handling ice is no joke.

Eric and Raya are standing on a bed of stromatolite fossils.  The rock formation is cool.  Stromatolites are produced by cyanobacteria under shallow water.

Curly fries!  (As Raya and Josh would say.)

There was a group of five big horn sheep that were hanging out beyond the trail, out of sight of virtually every other hiker.

Glacier travel is not recommended by the Park, but it is recommended by me.

It was difficult to get to the glacier without getting our shoes wet in that painful water.  

We traversed four crossings with little issues; having poles helped a lot.

It was so worth it.  Eric and I have never walked on a glacier before!  It is so cool (not a pun) to see the ice buried below all of the rocks and dirt.  We can attest that glacial erosion exists, and it is amazing.

As we started our descent the 80% chance of rain in the forecast quickly became 100%.  The majority of our return was in the rain, which means no pictures.

There is a restaurant within the campground so we gave all of our wet bags to Josh to take back to camp and went straight to the Swiftcurrent Restaurant.  Their food is good, for descent prices, and it is obviously very convenient.  

(Don't order the grilled cheese.  I realized on this trip that Montana cannot make a satisfactory grilled cheese, because they don't understand the concept.  Everyone traveling to Montana should start their trip with this knowledge.)