Glacier National Park, MT --- West Glacier

Avalanche Creek

Today’s forecast called for rain and a high of 54 degrees.  Brrrr!  That didn’t stop us from exploring the West Glacier, Apgar and McDonald Lake areas of Glacier National Park.  We are here a little early in the season; the park’s main attraction – the Going-to-the-Sun Road – is still closed at Logan Pass while they clear the snow from the road.  Completed in 1932, the 52-mile road stretches from one end of the park to the other, and it hugs the cliffs just below the Continental Divide for a white-knuckle drive and jaw-dropping views of the glacier valleys below.  We are sad to miss out on the white-knuckle part.  The middle section of the road won’t be open until mid-June at least, but we were able to drive the first 14 miles of it today before we had to turn around and come back out the way we came.

The stretch of road from the West Glacier entrance to Avalanche campground is well-paved and pretty flat (quite a change from the pothole-riddled roads in Yellowstone).  There were lots of turnouts and places to pull over to get a view of the mountains, glaciers, and streams.  Here’s Kevin on a bridge overlooking McDonald creek:

Our main plan for today was to try to find a few rain-free hours to hike the Avalanche Lake trail, one of the park’s most popular hikes.  Luckily the Going-to-the-Sun Road was open as far as the trailhead.  We made sure to pack our rain gear and wear our fleece jackets…we Arizonans are not used to hiking in 50-degree weather.  The first thing that struck us about the forest hike was how green everything was – it’s a temperate rainforest.  We hiked past brilliant emerald-hued ferns and cedars rooted in a carpet of verdant green moss.  Even on a gray, drizzly day the colors really stood out – I can’t imagine what the forest floor would look like with a few rays of sunlight.

The trail itself was a little soggy and muddy in places (we were glad to be wearing our new pairs of hiking boots instead of our sneakers).  The payoff came once we got to the lake and saw the view of the mountains reflected in the still, clear water.

Glacier gets enormous quantities of snow in the wintertime – in some places along the Logan Pass section of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, it can be 80 feet thick.  That part, the “Big Drift”, must be cleared manually.  But in other parts of the park, the runoff from the snowmelt becomes powerful waterfalls that continue eroding the rock face.  Avalanche Lake is fed by countless such waterfalls, trickling down the face of the rock as the snow and ice melts.

After we finished the Avalanche Lake hike, we took a stroll around the Trail of the Cedars, an interpretive nature trail that is wheelchair-friendly and mud-free (it’s on a boardwalk).  I had to laugh, though, when I realized that all the signage on the trail was written in haiku form.  Here’s one I wrote:

          A long, muddy hike.

          Bitter cold.  Time for the lodge 

          And a hot chocolate.

Just as we completed the hike and got into the van, it started to rain.  Great timing!  We made a beeline for the historic Lake McDonald Lodge and ordered a hot coffee and a hot chocolate – Irish style.  (The whiskey really warms you up on a day like today.)