 St Mary Lodge & Resort One of the premier national park resorts in the country. |
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St Mary Lodge & Resort One of the premier national park resorts in the country. |
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Top Places to See Going-to-the-Sun Road Glacier National Park Pictures and Slideshows Park Map Lodges and Chalets In Glacier Park Camp Grounds In Glacier National Park St. Mary's Area See Map Here McDonald Area See Map Here North Fork Area Southern Boundary Area Two Medicine Area Logan Pass Area Many Glacier Area See Map Here Trail of the Cedars Avalanche Area Cut Bank Area Chief Mountain Goat Haunt Area See Map Here Services Available In Glacier Park Wintering In Glacier National Park
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Our goal this trip is to hike across Glacier Park's, eastern boundary to
the west along mostly well beaten paths. We are starting just off of Hwy 17
on Indian lands.
We can see Chief Mountain in the distance, so awesome looking, even though it is still 6 miles away.
On day 1,
We take our time and enjoy perfect weather while hiking along the southern side of Chief mountain. As we get to the west side of the mountain, we come to Slide Lake; a small lake, and nice place to spend our first night. On day 2, Gable mountain, which is taller than Chief mountain, is off to our left now as we look forward to having a much more strenuous day of climbing up and through Gable Pass. The views are spectacular along the way, and watching ever so closely, we have not seen a bear yet. (Yea!) As we climb down to the Belly River, finishing our day of hiking, we setup camp and prepare the evening meal. The sights we've seen today were sights very few will ever see. There is no easy way to see these wondrous places deep in Glacier Park, except to brave the wilderness like this.
On day 3,
It's another awesome day. Hiking along, we pass two large lakes, Cosley and then Glenn's. After lunch, we decide to push on toward Kootenai Lakes and camp for the night. It took a little longer then expected, and getting there nearer to dark was a bit scary. All the animals were out and about foraging for their evening meal. Seems as though every time we came across a moose or a deer, they would completely ignore us or tell us to get out of their way. Just have to laugh when you pass a goat on the trail and he makes you step aside with just that look in his eyes. On day 4, As we awakened this morning, we could see moose, bear, deer and goats nearly everywhere. This must truly be the "High Country" folks talk about! We were quietly enjoying the animals and decided to stay at this camp site for a second night. Thinking, this fine day, we might never again see such an abundance of wildlife. Just a short hike from here is Rainbow falls so we decided to take a little detour off our planned route, and spend some time at the falls. As you can see in this picture, we enjoy taking photos of water.
On day 5,
We stopped by Goat Haunt Montana, and checked out the view across Waterton Lake; A cool place with its own border crossing into Canada, and living quarters for several Glacier Park rangers. After a brief time here, we set our sites on making it up to the Continental Divide. All went well until the last mile or so. It was as steep as can be, and pushing on to make it to the top of the world, left us tired and a bit shaken. After today's hike of about 12 miles, we didn't even bother putting up our tent.
On day 6,
By morning, it had gotten pretty cold, being up at this altitude, so we dressed in all the warm clothing we carried, then, the two of us sat down with a cup of hot chocolate as we planned our day. We were not able to truly appreciate the scope of where we had settled down last night. Only in the morning light, could we realize how spectacular the view was. Looking across from peak to peak, and watching eagles fly over head, one gets lost in dreams of feeling you could fly if only... Standing there you just know you are one of a handful of hardy hikers that will ever see these spectacular sites. On our hike today, goats and bear are mostly what we see. It is the end of September, and a lot of the animals spend their time wandering these high mountains, foraging for food. What a beautiful site as we near Kintla and Upper Kintla Lakes. Knowing that we are nearing the end of our hike makes us all the more conscious of trying to take in every second of being in this great American wilderness. We set up camp between the two lakes today, knowing that just one more day and we will have to return to civilization.
On day 7,
Monster Rabbits
Tomorrow our ride will find us just outside the park along the north fork road. At daybreak, we are up and packed ready to say goodbye to Kintla lake. We headed south along the trail that will take us to the North Fork of Flathead River. Next thing we knew, the trail was gone. Not to worry said my hiking companion, we can just head southwest until we get out to the river. Walking along on level ground with small pine and fir trees all around, we came to a fence. " What is this, a fence in the park?" Wow, this was a very tall fence too. Not knowing where we were, we just kept walking along the fence till we came across an old homestead. It seemed to be a quiet place with no cars in sight anywhere. It was still quite early, but there was this old gentleman who seemed to be working around the place. "Hello," we hollered. " Well, are you boys lost?" he asked, not seeming too surprised at our being there. I would suppose, we were not the first to have wandered onto this property. We were delighted to find the place, knowing that if there were people here, we could not be that lost. Introducing ourselves, and asking for a little direction, he told us his name, and invited us to join him for a hot cup of coffee. Being pretty curious as to why and how he could be here in Glacier Park, he told us how his family had homesteaded this land long before Glacier Park even existed. And about how the government was trying to deny him, and others like him, access to their own property. He seemed to be getting a little excitable as my friend took sides with the government and said that he should have to go by the same rules as everyone else visiting the park. Wrong!!! As he explained it, he had no intentions of going by what he called, 'Government intrusion, or rules.' He told us how it was an ongoing battle with the government wanting him to conform to more and more rules all the time. We finished our coffee, got some directions, and decided it was time to be on our way.
On the way out, we could see huge pens with some sort of animals in them. We
asked, "What do you have back there?" "Those are my rabbits" he said.
Thinking he was kidding, because they looked more like small goats, Llama or
Alpacas from a distance. But it was true. In another minute we could see he
did have some really big rabbits. I bet they were 4 1/2 feet long, and 50
pounds or better. There they were, about 30 of these "Monster Rabbits"
inside the fence with what looked like dog houses for shelter.
At this point I could not believe my eyes. So I asked if I could please take some pictures. First he said, "Sorry, I don't want any pictures taken." (Lucky for us, he did want to show off his monster rabbits though, and changed his mind.) So he said to wait by the woodshed and he'd bring out his two friendliest pets. We snapped these first two photos, and then he said, "Go ahead and pick that one up, he don't bite". Being familiar with rabbits, I grabbed a hold of this monster buck rabbit, and gave him a lift. That buck had to be 50 pounds or more. Big and friendly critters indeed. I am glad I got these photos since "Monster Rabbits" must be more rare than the grizzly bears we had been looking at for these past few days.
On day 8, |
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