A perfect day in Glacier

©2014 Lydia Hinshaw

Mt. Clements, above Logan Pass

The Garden Wall

 GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, MT -- Sunday was perfection here, and we got to Logan Pass by 8:30, in plenty of time to have our pick of parking spaces.

 We had contemplated hiking to Hidden Lake Overlook, a trek so popular that most of it is on a boardwalk.  I recalled from somewhere in my Glacier past, that there was another, unmarked and unmaintained trail that left from the visitors' center, and I went looking for it.

 Sure enough, we were able to set out alone, pass a lovely waterfall and get some great views of the area.  We saw two people coming down at the beginning and then walked for more than an hour before meeting another family of three hikers.

 The trail goes to the top of Mt. Oberlin, but we didn't get that far.  Prince Charming waited in a great spot while I scrambled up to the top of a ridge with a view of the other side of the mountain.  Then I picked my way  back down the steep slope, including several seat-of-the-pants stretches.

 We saw many marmots and, almost back to the trailhead, a mama mountain goat and her kid.

 After a parking-lot lunch, we took our long lenses for a shorter hike up the same trail, where we found more marmots and another mountain goat, this one resting on a rock almost in the middle of a waterfall (pictures on flickr, link at right.)

 It was such a wonderful day we figured it was a good time to leave Glacier, so we hit the road, southbound, Monday morning.