Glacier national park (US) part 1

We loved our time in Canada but needed to head back to the US. We drove the 372 miles south to Glacier National Park in Montana. With all the rule changes that had been implemented over the summer for bringing dogs back into the US we had spent hundreds of dollars and hours researching what we needed for our 3 pups. And the legitimate answer for our crossing was….nothing. The paperwork was necessary but none of it was checked. Our border crossing took all of 5 minutes, and some of that was just friendly chatting with the officer about his dogs and how we all love pups. The dogs got some treats from him, and overall it was a great experience. To be fair, we also had everything printed, organized, and ready to show including an inventory of our camper food and beverages. We offered all these papers to the officer and he just grinned and said, “that’s okay.” Since we had to empty out most of the fridge and pantry for the crossing and there’s not really a grocery store nearby (the closest one marks everything up 10x since the next one is 2 hours away) so we ordered the campground pizza. It was actually delicious and the campground makes the dough themselves. Our top priority for our time in Glacier National Park (our 4th US National park of this trip) was to complete the Highline trail with the garden wall spur trail. The last time we were here the shuttle that takes you to this point to point hike had stopped the day before but we were told they ran for one more week. This led to us meeting a great family that are now friends as we shuttled ourselves to complete this hike. At the time, Dave and I weren’t up to do the garden wall and the weather was turning south fast. We were motivated to explore this new area now. We were about a mile from the campground when we saw 2 small black bear cubs (one cinnamon) on the road playing but did not see mama (our 23rd and 24th black bears!) before quickly moving along. The shuttle unfortunately was running much slower and smaller buses than promised due to some of the CDL drivers having left for college. So our hopefully 8:30 am start was pushed to almost 10am. We had some entertaining fellow passengers that passed the time quickly including a through hiker about to complete the Continental Divide Trail (from Mexico to Canada). Luckily we talked to a ranger at the trailhead and learned a rain storm was coming in around 3pm that was likely going to turn to snow. This definitely quickened our pace and set out on this amazing hike.

It starts through a short forested area then along a ridge in the rocks with steep drop offs to your left. It’s a wide enough trail that Dave and I felt very comfortable along it but it gives people a thrill! The incline is fairly gentle for most of the hike with a few steep switchbacks along the way to help crest some ridgelines. The views are truly endless and it has earned its place on most top US hikes for a reason. When you reach the garden wall, you can see the steep incline on loose rock by the ant-size people above you. Between keeping our pace at or below 20 minute miles at high elevation with further incline, and the steep and loose change in footing, the garden wall was humbling in its short jaunt. We finally reached the top of the ridge and were rewarded by beautiful views of Grinnel Glacier below us and near 360 degree views. Last time we were in Glacier national park we hiked up to the Grinnel Glacier via the Many Glacier area which is a stunning trail. Seeing it from above was worth the effort to get here. The whipping wind made it difficult to stay at the overlook for more than a few minutes and we headed back down. The return 4 miles to the next shuttle were also swift to beat the incoming rain. As our shuttle picked us up and delivered us to the next stop the skies let loose and we were very happy to be off the trail. A long wait for the next shuttle was frustrating, but eventually we were able to get back to our truck and the campground. We were also lucky to see a very large adult black bear (#25 this trip!) on the second shuttle on the way back, and Dave spotted some mountain goats on the first shuttle. Another pizza night and relaxation insued to reward ourselves from a 13.7 mile, 2400 ft elevation day in just over 5 hours.Læs mere