Trip to Glacier National Park ~ Day 2

This was actually our first full day in the park, and we had plans for a full-day hike to Hidden Lake to fish for some Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The day started out with a drive up to Logan Pass Visitor Center, where we found a family of mountain goats lounging on the side of the road, so of course we had to take a detour and get some pictures! Since it was about 7:00 AM, we had them pretty much to ourselves, which was kind of nice!


The baby and mama kept going out in the road and licking antifreeze up off of the road. There were also several areas in the parking lot where gravel had been spread over antifreeze leaks to prevent the goats from licking it off of the pavement

Nap time!

The trail to Hidden Lake takes off from behind the Visitor Center at Logan Pass. By the time we finally got going, several early morning skiers had headed up onto a glacier behind the center and we spent some time watching them celebrating 4th of July by skiing and snowboarding down the glacier, with me wishing I had a 600mm lens...or a snowboard! It sure looked like a lot of fun!!!

The first mile and a half of the hike consisted of slipping and sliding across snow bridges and glacier fields, through slush and across ice...definitely not easy walking! But it was well worth it for the views (and to be able to shake our heads at the people we saw in their sandals and flip-flops!!!).




Tom needing to see what was on the other side!

Looking down on Hidden Lake...still frozen over!

It was about a mile and a half to the observation deck looking down on Hidden Lake, and then another mile and a half to hike down to the shore of Hidden Lake, but the last half of the hike was much better hiking as it was more open trail and rocks instead of snow and slush, although it was straight down (and back up!). This was where we saw the majority of the wildlife.

This guy was a character! He was hanging out at the observation deck.



Taking time to smell the flowers...and eat them!

The Columbia ground squirrels were thicker than squirrels in the city park!


We didn't get in any fishing, as the lake was still froze, but we had a great day of hiking, saw some beautiful scenery, and took a few hundred pictures!It was dark by the time we got back to the tent, totally exhausted, so we had a full day, but definitely ready to do it all over again the next day!