Five Glacier

Today we hiked from Many Glacier Campground to Ptarmigan Tunnel.  We did part of this hike the other day (unsurprisingly, when we saw the ptarmigans) but 3 miles in there is a junction on the right for the Ptarmigan Tunnel Trail.  Our total mileage for the hike was 12 miles.

Just like the other trails it was full of fabulous flora and fauna (say this five times fast).

The Glacier National Park Travel Guide websites says that "Yellow Columbines are one of the rarest golden wildflowers in Glacier National Park," which is hard to believe being that we must have seen hundreds, on almost every trail, but I will just go with it because it sounds cool.  

In the upper, right hand corner is our destination, Ptarmigan Tunnel, at 7,200' elevation.  It was amazing how much the temperature changed from when we took this picture compared to when we got to the top.  I was so bummed I didn't bring my gloves!

The tunnel was built in 1930 for people like us, hikers who wanted to avoid the steep terrain above, us non-mountain goat types.

This is the view from the other side of the tunnel.

Raya is a daredevil PB&J picnicker. 

Eric has no problem relaxing, and waiting patiently for din din. 

We ended our day watching the busy beaver family watch us.

Four Glacier

East Glacier is bear country so we were constantly on bear patrol.  

The grand bear total today= FOUR black bears.

This is the first time that Eric and I have been to Canada eh.

Waterton is a little town located in the center of Waterton Lakes National Park eh.  The Canadian National Park is connected to Glacier National Park on the US side.  Lone Wolf was born and raised in Fernie, BC, Canada.

It is hard to believe that this is an official sign, but here we are to prove it.

I guess people just become too comfortable around these wild animals, and they don't always act as cute and innocent as they look eh.

Raya brought us into a liquor store to compare prices.  

Coors must have a different fan base in Canada than in the US eh. 

This is gourmet beer!

Ye Old Lick and Nibble Ice Cream Shoppe gets their ice cream fresh from a local creamery.

We didn't write this, and we never found the kid who wrote it.  

I can't imagine they were in the ice cream shoppe, or the gift shoppe... poor thing.

The Prince of Wales Hotel is a Waterton icon, and has been since 1927, when it opened and bus service began to and from Glacier National Park.

In the afternoon we returned to Many Glacier, and joined the other tourists observing wildlife from the campground.

This hill by our campsite is a favorite haunt of mountain goats, who are always showing off.

For the record, Montana, this is what a grilled cheese is supposed to look like.  (Thanks, Josh!)

Right next to our campsite is a river, and a family of busy beavers.  

They didn't exactly love us observing them but they continued their chores (eat, move, build, repeat), while keeping an eye on the strange bipedal animals watching them.

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.)