Two Surprises at Glacier National Park, Montana
Date walked: 02/07/2016
Time taken: 1.5 hours
Distance: 3km
Ascent: 100m
After a couple of stellar walks during our recent trip to Montana, I came down with a bug-throat full of razor blades and felt like someone was standing on my chest. This did not make me anxious to bound back into the mountains. So, after a day of sleeping on the couch, we found a short 1 km hike to an interesting waterfall - Running Eagle Falls (named after a Blackfeet woman warrior) and is just down the road, on your way to the Scenic Point Hike. The falls are quite interesting when viewed early in the season (by or before early July). As you'll see in the accompanying photos, there are two sets of falls. One fall is from above and only present when there is surplus water from the mountain run-off in the spring. The second set of falls is about 2/3rds of the way down the elevation and the water falls down a crevasse behind the rock structure, and then flows out an opening in the front. The walk for this little hike is only 1km and is mostly accessible by wheelchair (you can at least see the falls, although for full effect a bit of scrambling to get up close is what most folks want). The trail is full of thimbleberry bushes, so later in the season this should also be a hotspot for bears coming to feast.
After leaving Running Eagle Falls, it was time for supper, so we stopped at a favourite with locals and tourists-the Johnson's Restaurant in St. Mary's (huge portions of good food and very reasonable price). After we rolled out of the restaurant with leftovers in hand, we decided to drive up to the Logan Pass (part of the Continental Divide). You get there on the Going to the Sun Road, we were coming from the St. Mary Gate to the park. We'd tried to stop there and hike up to Hidden Lake several times, but could never get a parking spot. I also felt the need to see Mountain Goats and Big Horn Sheep, something we'd been denied thus far. Well things never turn out exactly as you think. We did find a parking spot, but the walk and wildlife viewing was off, as you'll see in these photos. We walked about 2 km up from the parking lot and back.
After leaving Running Eagle Falls, it was time for supper, so we stopped at a favourite with locals and tourists-the Johnson's Restaurant in St. Mary's (huge portions of good food and very reasonable price). After we rolled out of the restaurant with leftovers in hand, we decided to drive up to the Logan Pass (part of the Continental Divide). You get there on the Going to the Sun Road, we were coming from the St. Mary Gate to the park. We'd tried to stop there and hike up to Hidden Lake several times, but could never get a parking spot. I also felt the need to see Mountain Goats and Big Horn Sheep, something we'd been denied thus far. Well things never turn out exactly as you think. We did find a parking spot, but the walk and wildlife viewing was off, as you'll see in these photos. We walked about 2 km up from the parking lot and back.
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sross
- Location: Ontario, Canada
- Activity: Mountaineer
- Pub: Boots Bar
- Mountain: Lochnagar
- Place: Glen Affric
- Gear: binoculars and compass
- Camera: CanonG15
- Ambition: Hiking in the Dolomites
- Munros: 2
- Corbetts: 2
- Fionas: 2
- Sub 2000: 2
- Filter reports
- Trips: 2
- Distance: 15 km
- Ascent: 783m
- Trips: 1
- Distance: 14 km
- Munros: 1
- Trips: 1
- Distance: 3 km
- Trips: 2
- Distance: 47.9 km
- Ascent: 508m
- Joined: Aug 06, 2012
- Last visited: Jul 07, 2022
- Total posts: 139 | Search posts