Day 27 – Glacier National Park (Day 1)

Avalanche Creek

We spent the night in Kalispell, MT, and then drove into Glacier National Park this morning for our planned hike up to Avalanche Lake. It was a fairly difficult hike, at least for us, and it took us 1.5 hours to climb the 2.3 miles to the lake. The hike goes along Avalanche Creek and then up to the lake.

John and Jeanne at Avalanche Lake

Avalanche Lake is a mountain lake surrounded by high glacial mountain walls and the lake can only be reached by backpacking. The lake is formed by glacial run-off and snow melt. All along the hike and in the lake you could see trees felled by avalanches in the area, hence the name. This past winter was worse than normal and the road we took today was only opened on July 4. The scenery around the lake and on the hike in general was fantastic.

McDonald Lake

The weather today, by the way, was perfect. It was full sun and around 60 when we started the hike. We were told it had been raining for the past two weeks, so we really came at the right time.

Bear Crossing!!!

On the drive back, we came across a black bear just ambling across the road and ignoring traffic. We pulled up along side and it calmly rose up and grabbed a paw full of berries from a nearby tree, no more than 10 feet from our car. It was pretty cool and definitely the highlight of animal sightings so far. Photos aren’t the best as we weren’t prepared and the bear didn’t stick around too long. The funny thing is that it was no more than maybe two miles from where we ended the trail. We are really glad we came across the bear in our car and not on the hike!