twomorrows & twominis: Montana Adventure Part IV

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Montana Adventure Part IV

Glacier Part 2

We took our time getting up Saturday. After breakfast, we started the Going to the Sun Road. I knew that parking lots would fill quickly, so we had a list of places to stop if there was parking. If not, we would keep going. I had also purchased the Glacier guide from Guide Along, which we all really enjoyed. We ended up finding parking near Avalanche Lake, so that's the hike we did. It ended up being about 5 miles. We had a picnic lunch, then continued down the road to Lake McDonald before turning around for the day. We took our supper to a picnic area on St Mary's Lake before going critter creeping. Cooper spotted a grizzly! We made a quick U turn and saw him walking into the woods. We also spotted an elk in the distance. No pictures because they got too far, too fast.

I set my alarm for 4:30, but I woke up at 4:00. The sky was clear and I could already see the Milky Way! (It had been cloudy the previous two nights.) We woke the kids up and drove to the picnic area across the street. June was too scared of animals to stay out of the car (not to mention it was about 45 degrees,) so John and June sat in the car and watched for meteors while Coop and I stood outside. We saw several in our 20ish minutes. It was amazing to see SO many stars. Then we went back to bed for a while. With a late start to the day, we headed on the Going to the Sun Road again to see what parking would be open. Thankfully we found a decent spot at the closest hike to us- St Mary and Virginia Falls. The first part was very exposed due to a wildfire several years ago. From St Mary Falls to Virginia Falls was wooded and MUCH cooler. On the way back, we saw a moose in the lake! A moose is the one animal I didn't see last year, so I really hoped to see one this year. I was so excited to see one! The hike was about 4 miles. I had another hike in mind, but the kids were pretty much done at this point. They had hiked 20 miles since we arrived! So we just made our way along GTTS road and out toward the Airbnb. We stopped in Hungry Horse for huckleberry pie and bison and elk burgers. We drove along Flathead Lake and finally got back around 7 pm. Whew!