September 2020 - Glacier National Park
An airline deal we couldn't pass up led us to make a trip up to Glacier National Park. It was the very end of the season - beautiful fall colors, and we lucked out with sunny, warm weather for the weekend. The pass was closed by snow about a week after we left.
We spent 3 days hiking in the park, and did about 40 miles in those 3 days. Fairly exhausting, but incredible views around every turn! This gallery has the pictures from day 1, in which we hiked the Highline trail (probably the most popular trail in the park). The shuttle wasn't running, so it ended up being a 17-mile roundtrip. Days 2 and 3 of the trip are in part 2.
An airline deal we couldn't pass up led us to make a trip up to Glacier National Park. It was the very end of the season - beautiful fall colors, and we lucked out with sunny, warm weather for the weekend. The pass was closed by snow about a week after we left.
We spent 3 days hiking in the park, and did about 40 miles in those 3 days. Fairly exhausting, but incredible views around every turn! This gallery has the pictures from day 1, in which we hiked the Highline trail (probably the most popular trail in the park). The shuttle wasn't running, so it ended up being a 17-mile roundtrip. Days 2 and 3 of the trip are in part 2.
|
|
|
| Our first view of the incredible valleys in Glacier | The star of Glacier NP: The highline trail | Beginning the highline trail |
|
|
|
| Along the trail | Hiking past waterfalls | |
|
|
|
| Incredible views! | ||
|
|
|
| Coming up on the haystack pass | Beautiful colors! | |
|
|
|
| The sun starting to peak over the ridge | Haystack pass! About the 1/4 mark of our trip. | |
|
|
|
| The haystack | What views! | |
|
|
|
| The whole valley opened up before us | McDonald lake peaking through a valley | |
|
|
|
| Incredible color on the hillsides | The (one-way) hike ended with a surprisingly steep hike up the ridge | |
|
|
|
| Almost there! We pushed on all the way to the very top | We hiked all the way up to the ridge and were rewarded with some great views of the Many Glacier area, with lakes stretching all the way out ot the plains | |
|
|
|
| It was a bit overcast when we first arrived, and then... | The sun filled the bowl! Beautiful! | |
|
|
|
| Looking back from the ridge into the wide valley | Hiking back down from the ridge | I discovered a heart-shaped rock. How lovely! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Peaking through the mountains to McDonald Lake | ||
|
|
|
| Making our way back to haystack pass | ||
|
|
|
| Action shot! | Hiking past a small waterfall | |
|
|
|
| Incredible panoramas in every direction | ||
|
|
|
| As we were hiking along, a huge bighorn sheep popped out onto the trail right in front of us! | He was just slowly meandering along, eating shrubberies on the sides of the trail. We were stuck behind him, unable to pass, so we just enjoyed the view! | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Nearing the end of our 17 mile hike! | Looking back at the trail near the end of the day, nearly back at the trailhead | Made it back! |
|
||