Glacier County

We woke to yet another gorgeous morning (we've been incredibly blessed with the weather) and decided a big hike was in order. We drove up the road to Logan's Pass Visitor Center but soon gave up fighting over non-existent parking spaces with 50 other people. We drove on over the Continental Divide (which way the water flows out) but didn't have any better luck and eventually headed back towards our camp site. About noon we bagged a parking spot which was close enough to our back up hike so we set off up Siyeh's Pass. It was gorgeous walk up through the pine forest and into the alpine. As we headed over the saddle we were treated to beautiful views of a small glacier below and across into Canada. On the other side of the pass was an absolutely unbelievable view of massive valleys, towering peaks and a huge, cracked, deep blue glacier gripping to a small ledge in the cliffs. The walk took us on down, down, down the valley and through more scorched forest. Luckily we ended up doing the hike the right way as we lost twice the altitude we gained. It was an absolutely incredible day, with stunning scenery drenched in sun.

We didn't think we'd be able to top yesterday's hike and thought we should have a bit of an easier day so we headed back up to Logan's Pass (on the free shuttle this time!) for a short walk to Hidden Lake. We recognised a small unmarked trail that Marshall, our camp site neighbour, and told us about so we thought we'd get away from the crowds a bit. That certainly worked as I think we saw more mountain goats than people! The views from top of the trail blew away the busy overlook ones and we had lunch with just another goat for company. Jo amazingly agreed to push on up the Dragon's Tail, a narrow ridge with massive drop offs down to the lake far, far below. We went on until we were both getting a bit freaked out by the crumbling rock and long plummets below, before heading back to the saddle. The sun was still high so we followed a narrow goat track around the cliffs surrounding Reynolds Mountain out on a rocky promenade with jaw dropping views of the glaciers on the far side of the valley. It was an absolutely awesome view, and cemented Glacier NP as the new favourite park.

Marshall joined us for beef stew that evening as we watched the full moon rising over the mountains behind us and we played around with his military grade night vision goggles, which was great for spying on the other campers! We'd been toying with buying binoculars for a few weeks so when Marshall offered us his pair we had to add to our collection of stuff (whilst helping him pair down his bike even more!)

An unbelievable few days but time to move on - we're just not sure where we are going yet! You would have thought that after we've just passed our 3 month point we'd be more organised by now.Read more