Day 74: Looking at Lakes

Besides the major lakes of Lake McDonald and St Mary Lake, there are all these other smaller glacial lakes tucked away in the park. Today, I hiked to two of them: Avalanche Lake and Hidden Lake.

Last Day at Glacier

I slept in until almost 8:30 this morning then had breakfast with Mike and Wayne as they packed up. Colin joined us a bit later and we all exchanged contact info and said our good byes as Mike and Wayne were headed off this morning.

After they left, Colin and I took the shuttle up to Avalanche Creek and hiked the two miles up to Avalanche Lake. It’s a pretty popular hike, so there were lots of families on the trail and hanging out by the lake. The lake was bright blue and surrounded by giant mountains with these tall skinny streams running down their crevices.

Colin wanted to hang out for a bit, but I needed to get moving so we parted ways for the day. I got back to Avalanche Creek and caught the shuttle up to Logan Pass. It was cool to re-see some of the vistas I passed on my bike yesterday. When we were there yesterday the Hidden Lake trail was closed for maintenance, so I was eager to hike it today. A lot of the trail was boardwalk heading up through meadow and snow fields. I walked on snow in my chacos in August - so weird. The lake really was quite hidden until you made it over a ridge and to the overlook. I had a nice snack break and enjoyed the view, then headed back. The trail was busy when I arrived, but was downright zoo-ey when I was leaving.

It took a while to get a shuttle back down to the campground and I was hungry. As soon as I got back to camp I cooked up some food and then later had a dessert of some Chex mix and a package of raisins Heidi had grabbed me from Rising Sun. Colin and I had a quiet evening hanging out and chatting at our site. He heads home tomorrow night whereas I head onward. This has been a cool little vacation from the trip and it’s been awesome sharing it with Heidi, Colin, Mike, and Wayne.