Goat Trails

We left Glacier National Park yesterday.  But we couldn't leave without one last hike.  It was begging to be conquered and we had to give it a shot!  It started at Logan Pass, the marker for the Continental Divide.  The trial isn't a hard one, but it is amazing and very long!  To get everyone's heart pumping you start with a path cut into the very face of the rock (if you look closely you can see a tiny red person along the trail mid-way in the picture), with a guide rope for security, hundreds of feet above the Going-to-the-Sun road!  Wow!  The trail follows the road (albeit much higher!) for about 3 or so miles (not quite so 'on the edge' - but never a real comfort zone!).

We saw Mountain Goats, maybe a hundred Prairie Dogs and deer (thankfully no bears!). Micah lead for a good portion of the hike. After dozens of Prairie Dogs running along the path in front of him, we finally gave him the Indian name: "Prairie Dog Chaser" (smile).  We snacked with a Bald Eagle soaring overhead (I'm convinced that we passed a nest - we thought could hear the chicks, but we couldn't ever see it).

The trail sure looks like the Mountain Goats were the original engineers! It just hugs the side of the mountain for miles. So narrow that you have to stop to allow others to pass.  And pretty precarious!  You really have to watch your footing - Glacier is made up of a crumbly gorgeous green, red and gray rocks.  The trail crosses snow patches (including a section where we all lost our footing and went for a slide - talk about a rush!) that only just melted enough to allow hikers to pass. 

The views were indescribable!  Just amazingly spectacular!  Glacier has so much snow it makes hundreds of waterfall this time of the year - on the trail you cross, wade and hop dozens of them.  There are patches of forest - makes it seem like you are on some lovely park path.  And then bam! you walk out onto a carpet of yellow wildflowers stretching as far as you can see.  You walk through areas of rugged rocky path that look like Mexican desert.  In 12 miles it's like you see so much, just such variety!




The trail covers about 8 miles and ends at a chalet.  I imagined 'restaurant' like what I experienced in Europe - power (somehow), food, water - you know some amount of civilization.  Ah, no.  Beautiful.  But no civilization!  Our plan had been to hike to the chalet, rest a bit (a good long bit!) and make the last 4 mile trek (descending 2200 feet) to the Loop Parking.  Where we planned to catch the shuttle back to our car (about 30 minutes away).  Here is where the plan utterly failed and the pictures stop.  We are just not used to being so far North and where we imagine it was about 5pm, it was really nearly 7.  No way to make it down the mountain (4 miles in an hour).  Boy, did we hustle (ask Dyl about his Aragon run down the mountain - if only we had the feet of Legolas we might have made it :-)!

We'll let you wonder about how our adventure ended.  You know it worked out 'cause here I am sitting in a hotel (haven't been able to walk all day! but I can type) relaxing!

It was all worth it!  We'd all do it again - but not today!

(PS - Dyl's Indian name was: Boy Who Wants Bus!)