Highline Trail

Friday was out last day in the park. Going to the Sun Road had opened to Logan Pass and the Highline Trail was now open, so we were excited to be able to do this epic hike before our trip was over. We arrived at the Loop shortly after 7, planning to take the shuttle to Logan Pass and hike back to the cars. Unfortunately, most of the shuttles were full or had limited seating. The recent reopening of Logan Pass had greatly increased the crowds. We finally got four people on a shuttle, then drove the rest of us in the van to Logan Pass. After getting our stuff together, we set off on our hike. The Highline Trail is certainly one of the most spectacular trails in the park, running roughly parallel to and high above Going to the Sun Road right below the continental divide. The views over the mountains, bathed in early morning light, were fantastic.

This is a popular trail, however, so there were a lot of other people on the trail. At one point, the trail narrowly circumnavigated a steep cliff wall, with just a garden hose attached to the cliff for a hand rail.

In about 2 miles, we stopped at a rocky open area for a snack. We were soon greeted by several Columbian ground squirrels, who came out of the rocks, looking for a bite to eat.

Continuing on, we could see Lake McDonald, Heaven’s Peak, and several other features of the park.

Heaven’s Peak was visible for nearly the entire hike.

Along the Garden Wall, wildflowers were blooming all along the trail in a rainbow of colors.

Just off the trail, we saw a spruce grouse pecking around in the brush along the trail.

As we continued along the Garden Wall, we came to a split in the trail and turned right on Garden Wall Trail to head up to the Grinnell Glacier Overlook.

Gaining over 1000 vertical feet in less than a mile, this is the steepest trail in the park. But so worth it. Going slow and steady, the climb wasn’t too bad, and soon we reached the top where we had an amazing view of Grinnell Glacier and Upper Grinnell Lake from far above.

We stopped to have lunch here and then spent some time taking pictures from this phenomenal overlook. From here, we could see the four lakes that we had passed on our Grinnell Glacier Hike – Upper Grinnell, Grinnell, Josephine, and Sherburne.

Looking down far below, we could see where we had hiked up to the edge of the glacier and lake. On the other side of the mountain, we could see the smoke from the Reynolds Creek Fire, which had unfortunately picked up a bit in the last day or two.

As we were getting ready to head back down, we spotted a mountain goat far below on Salamander Glacier.

Then, we started making our way back down to the Highline Trail. There were more beautiful wildflowers blooming along this last stretch before Granite Park Chalet.

Shortly after getting back on Highline Trail, we spotted a large bear up above. He was digging at an old log, presumably eating ants or termites.

We initially thought he was a grizzly, but after looking at the pictures closely, I think he was a brown black bear.

After getting some pictures from a safe distance, we continued on to Granite Park Chalet.

This chalet does not have running water nor lemonade, but we were able to purchase some cold bottled water. From here, we just had to hike back down to the Loop. Since we had to pick up the other car back at Logan Pass, Sandy, Dan and I hiked very quickly back to the parking lot while the others could take their time.

We made the four-mile hike in just over an hour and drove up to Logan Pass Visitor Center. We had hoped to get some cold drinks at the gift shop, but it was already closed, so I filled up some water bottles from the drinking fountain.

We had passed the roadside Oberlin Falls just before Logan Pass and I wanted to stop quickly for a picture. As we were driving to it, we had to stop as several mountain goats were in the road.

As the goats got off the road, we drove past slowly to get some great pictures of these beautiful creatures.

It was two adults and three kids, grazing along the side of the road and hopping back and forth across the stream below the waterfall. I was so excited we got to see some mountain goats up close.

Watching their climbing skills is always so amazing. After some pictures, we drove back to the Loop just as the others were finishing up the hike. We got everyone back in the car and then headed to Apgar for dinner at Eddie’s again. After dinner, we headed back to the house and got our stuff packed to head home after a wonderful time in beautiful Glacier National Park.

Sperry Chalet

Thursday morning, most of the group woke up and left at 5 to hike the Swiftcurrent Pass Trail, but I wasn’t feeling great and wanted to sleep in a bit. So Sandy and I headed to McDonald Lodge a little later in the morning to hike to Sperry Chalet. We parked at the lodge and started our hike around 930. Before we left the parking lot, we met an older gentleman named Jack, who was also hiking up to Sperry Chalet. He joined us for our hike and we enjoyed talking with him along the trail. Good conversation made the rather steep trail a little better. Heading up Gunsight Pass Trail, it was mostly forested, but a couple places to pop out and see the Snyder Creek Valley and Lake McDonald in the distance.

In just under two miles, we crossed Snyder Creek and continued on Gunsight Pass Trail up towards the chalet heading into the Sprague Creek Valley. The trail was steep and steadily increasing, but we had started early enough that it wasn’t too bad.

Most of the way was in the shade at least. In another couple of miles the trail started to open up and soon we passed Beaver Medicine Falls, an impressive looking waterfall, but it was too far from the trail for a good view.

Shortly after passing the falls, we could see Sperry Chalet from the trail high on the cliff above.

At one point, we had to stop and get off the trail to allow a mule train coming down the mountain after delivering supplies to the chalet.

There are no roads up to the chalet so all goods must be carried up by mules. We were fortunate to be on the trail when they passed. Finally, the trail started to level off as we approached Glacier Basin. From the footbridge over Sprague Creek, we could see Akaiyan Falls in the distance.

Hiking a little further, we could see Feather Woman Falls, a beautiful waterfall tumbling down in two streams.

In higher water, there are even more streams to this falls. We made the final ascent up to the chalet and stopped in for lunch. They have a limited menu, so we got sandwiches and a pitcher of lemonade. I don’t think lemonade has ever tasted so refreshing! We finished the entire pitcher and refilled our water from the chalet. After lunch, we headed outside and enjoyed the view from here. McDonald Lake was visible far below.

Then we started making our way back down. We spotted a patch of Lewis' Monkeyflower blooming near Glacier Basin.

A little further down the trail, we saw a cute little golden-mantled ground squirrel digging a hole right along the trail.

When we passed Beaver Medicine Falls, I tried a couple times to bushwhack to a better view of the falls, but had no luck.

The area is incredibly steep and overgrown with impassable cliff faces blocking any chance of getting to a good view. Once I gave up, we continued making our way back down. It was easier going downhill, but it was much hotter than it had been in the morning and there was a much less shade along the trail. Right before we reached the bridge over Snyder Creek, Sandy thought she saw a waterfall. Hoping for better luck on this one, I got off the trail and bushwhacked to this small unnamed waterfall for a couple of pictures.

Then we finished our hike back to the parking lot at McDonald Lodge and said good-bye to Jack. Looking across the street, we could see Mount Brown and the lookout tower far above.

We had passed by the extremely steep trail that leads up there.

We swung by the gift shop at the lodge for a few minutes and I got some pictures outside of the totem pole as well as the “jammer” buses that provide tours.

Then we headed back to the house. Everyone else had returned already from their hike and since it was much earlier than previous days, we cooked a big group dinner together.

Two Medicine

Wednesday, we left the house a little later. We were only driving to Two Medicine and our boat ride wasn’t until 1030. Unfortunately, there was construction on US-2 just before East Glacier that slowed things down, but we made it to Two Medicine in time.

After getting our tickets for the boat ride, we enjoyed the view of Two Medicine Lake and the beautiful Sinopah Mountain across the lake.

At 1030, we boarded the boat and set off across the lake. The mountains surrounding the lake were beautiful and a ranger accompanied the tour to give us some information about the natural history of the area. The lake isn't real big so we crossed in about 15 minutes. At the other side of the lake, we set off on our hike.

We took a short spur trail to Two Medicine South Shore Trail and went straight to the end of this trail at Upper Two Medicine Lake Trail. Turning left here, it was just a short ways to Twin Falls. As the name implies, there are two distinct waterfalls.

An unnamed tributary of Two Medicine Creek splits above the waterfall into two distinct streams that come back together after the waterfall. It was hard to get a good shot showing both waterfalls, but each one individually was quite nice.

The left side has more water flow, while the right side was higher. We had to rock hop across to get to the base of the one on the right, where we played in the water and climbed around next to the falls.

The rocks next to the falls formed stairs that made it easy to climb up the right side of the waterfall. As we were getting ready to leave, a Satyr Comma butterfly landed on Dan. After it flew off, we hiked the rest of the trail up to Upper Two Medicine Lake and had lunch here.

At first, it was breezy and a nice place to eat. Then, the breeze died down and a huge number of flies came out so we finished lunch quickly and started backtracking. When we got near the boat dock, we turned right to get on South Shore Trail and hike around the lake.

At the next intersection, we turned right to get on Two Medicine Pass Trail towards Cobalt Lake and hiked about a mile to Rockwell Falls. Approaching the falls, we could see the bottom portion, a 15-foot drop.

It was scenic, but looking up, I could see there was more waterfall, so I crossed the creek and climbed up to the next section. At this point there are two distinct falls, just before the creek does an abrupt 90° turn. Climbing out onto the rocks on the corner, I could kind of see the two waterfalls, but not a great view.

So I took off my boots and waded into the cold water for a much better view. I could also see that there was more waterfall further up.

So after drying my feet, I continued up for a better view of the different falls and some smaller cascades up at the top.

Rockwell Falls is a really cool waterfall and worth the time to explore – there’s a lot to see!

There were more cascades and cool rocks around the falls as we kept going up.

Eventually, there was no more waterfall further up, so we headed down and started backtracking to South Shore Trail. We turned right and continued following the south shore of the lake.

A few people on the trail indicated they had seen a moose, but we didn’t have any luck finding him. There was a rickety suspension bridge to cross the creek, and then the rest of the trail was mostly flat.

About a mile and a half or so from the bridge, we made a quick detour to see Aster Falls. It’s a thin cascading waterfall.

After some pictures at the base, I climbed up the right side to get some pictures of the upper cascades as well as the view looking back from here.

When we got back to the intersection with South Shore Trail, some people told us that they had seen the moose again. We were determined to see him, so we backtracked about a mile and eventually saw some people just off the trail.

The enormous bull moose was foraging in the shallow waters of a small pond along Paradise Creek. He would stick his head underwater for a few seconds, then come up for air and chew his food before going back down.

A few times, he vigorously shook the water off after coming up for air. His rack was huge. One time when he came up, he was right next to a tree and his antlers ripped and shredded the branches off the trail without seeming to even faze him.

We enjoyed watching him for a while then made our way back to the boat dock parking area. Everyone was tired, but Justine, Sandy, Betsy and I wanted to get one more waterfall, so on the way out, we stopped at Running Eagle Falls. It’s only a short, handicapped-accessible trail to this interesting waterfall. The water level was low, so only the lower 20-foot cascades part of the falls was flowing.

In higher water level, a second 40-foot waterfall crashes down in front of the lower one. Hence, this waterfall is also called Trick Falls. But even with just the lower part, it’s a really interesting waterfall. The water comes down from inside the rock and appears to be flowing out of nowhere.

We got some pictures and enjoyed looking around at all the pretty rocks in the creek bed, then started making our way home. We stopped at Firebrands along US-2 on the way home. While we were waiting for our food, we talked to a fairly intoxicated local who was a veteran and had been stationed at Fort Bragg, so he was familiar with North Carolina. After dinner, we made our last long drive home along US-2.