This day we decided to hike Grinnell Glacier. Ashley and Slaveè’s wife Rachel and youngest son Max, stayed behind and explored the city of Whitefish. I believe Ashley was just resting for the day.
We headed to Glacier after stopping at McDonald’s for a quick breakfast. It was an hour and a half to get to the park thus we decided to swing by the visitors center so we could get the stamp and the brochure for the park. We talked with the ranger and decided what hike we should do. Though Grinnell Glacier hike seemed to be the perfect hike for us, it was about a 2 hour drive according to the park ranger. This put us as a huge disadvantage for time so we decided to drive through the park. I came across a great hike called siyeh pass on my REI coop app.
This was the hike we decided on and it was only about 10 minutes past the summit of Glacier which is known as Logan’s pass visitor center. The hike was rated as black diamond due to the ascent and descent of over 4000 feet. The hike featured a trail around the back of a mountain and then back down a tremendously beautiful valley with rivers, gardens, hanging waterfalls and lush vegetation and forest. It also featured lake glacier’s and cliffs. This hike turned out to be on of the most colorful and beautiful hikes of the entire trip. I wish Ashley was able to make it but it proved to be something she couldn’t accomplish with her condition at the time. She was still back at the cabin.
This was a relatively unknown hike, and it was even better because of the low amount of people. The hike was gorgeous and the vegetation was amazing. So many edible plants throughout the hike and running glacial water made a unique experience even better. It took us 7 hours to complete he hike. Slaveè and his son were excellent hiking partners as we talked about the beauty of the new area. Also Slaveè brought us some lunch for the hike which we enjoyed at the apex of the hike with a break and ate lunch on a snow/ Glacier ice patch.
After this apex we started our downward descent and had about 4 miles left. We could see the end of our hike from way above but the switchbacks going down were various but nonetheless amazing as we passed by many waterfalls and flowers. Way in the distance to the east we saw many rivers that were flowing off the cliffs due to glacial melting and to higher summer temperatures. Near the bottom of the hike we started to get into a portion of the park that had suffered a forrest fire so there was a great contrast of black wood and lush forests which was a magical look. Near the last part of the hike we arrived where the waterfalls all converged into one flowing river which had carved out a beautiful red rock canyon.
This was one amazing way to end a hike with these colors of rock. At the very end we ran into the primary lake in the park and brought us back to another shuttle area. Near this shuttle area are the Baring Falls. These are worth a little hike down below the bridge to see the Slot canyon and the waterfall that funnels into the lake.
This completed the hike and we waited for about 30 minutes for the bus to shuttle us back to the previous area to drop us at our car. All in all the hike was a top 3 trail on our trip and proved to be a great surprise for something done on a whim. Afterwards we calculated it took about 6 hours to hike the Siyeh pass. I strongly recommend this hike for anyone who wants to have an incredible outdoor experience. We enjoyed the drive back down the ‘Going to The Sun’ road which proved (once again) to be an amazing drive in its own right. We ended up coming in from the west that day and exiting the same way. However this was only half of the park there is to explore. So Ashley (having not seen such a great hike) was upset about not experiencing it, so I promised I would come back on the east side and show her the hike we didn’t go to. This meant we had to loop about 8000 miles back to the east side after heading back west to finish the coast.
After the day was over us three had dinner at Caseys which is the local brewery and restaurant in whitefish. It was a great rooftop bar too with awesome views to relax in. We later that night ended our last night in the cabin with a cigar and beer. A great night cap to a great day. Tomorrow was another early morning headed to Seattle.
July 12 – Expenses
100 slavee
16.85 mcdonalds
35 diners
16.67 grocery store
total – 68.52