Now begins the blog post from one of the MOST beautiful national parks I have traveled to. This park was simply unbelievable! I made the long 9 hour drive over from TR National park and stopped to camp in St. Mary. I woke up early the next morning and made the drive up to Many Glacier! Some of these pictures are from the drive down into St. Mary and Many Glacier
I stayed overnight in the Swiftcurrent motor inn and I am happy I did! Camping in St Mary’s the night before was freezing! It was sort of icing when I got up in the morning. The motor inn had a great restaurant and a sizable gift shop. I was checking out and chatting with the woman at the counter and told her I was planning on hiking Iceberg Lake. She told me I was in luck because they had JUST reopened it because of bears! This obviously freaked me out a bit, so 5 seconds later I was buying their VERY overpriced bear spray to take with me.
This hike was probably one of my favorites and I am so happy I had the guts to do it. Maybe more like I was stupid enough to do it while hiking alone after that warning. But it was great! Going up it was so foggy I couldn’t hardly see anything! I carried the bear spray in my hand and made whistling and clapping noises the whole time. Even with no view except of the fog I was still pretty entertained by my own fear of every sound I heard in the woods off the trail. I finally made it up higher and some of the fog started to clear and I could see where I was hiking to!
The lake was nestled right over in the cove of those mountains! The fog cleared as I continued to climb and I felt like I was climbing up to some paradise! Looking back down at the valley was sort of surreal.
There was a smaller lake right before the big one and it was no less beautiful
And here it is! Icerberg lake – but with no Iceberg lake. I assume it has recently melted. But the water was so clear! I couldn’t resist putting my feet in!
Got this artsy shot on my way back down.
There were some road closures on the west side, which I learned about too late in the game! I decided at the last minute to drive up to Logan’s pass from the east side later that evening and I was SO happy that I did. Little did I know I was not going to get to come back up the other side the next day.
I watched the sunset from this spot. I still get the warm fuzzies when I look at this picture over a month later!
Unfortunately after driving all the way around to the other visitor center, the guy in front of me got the last shuttle pass for Going to the Sun Rd from the west side. I was pretty bummed, but I decided just to drive on down to Yellowstone a day early instead! I stayed just outside the park the night before, then had 2 full days there!
I will most definitely be back to Glacier, maybe for an entire week. There are so many long hikes leading to lakes and glaciers that I have earmarked. Highly recommend this park!!
Kelsey's Climb to 59 (+4) 