Glacier National Park: Day 1- Grinnell Glacier

Glaciers are formed by the repeated snowfalls in winter, and snow melts in summer. When snow accumulates by each passing snow fall, the snow becomes ice and heavy. This causes the mass of ice+snow to move around shaping and corroding the rocks. For this reason the mountains surrounding the glaciers will have very unique shapes, steep drop off points and can have sharp edges. Sad thing though, as temperature increases by global warming, the snow gets time to melt away and glaciers will slowly disappear. I read that, glacier national park had so many glaciers,which now dont even exist.

 Visiting glacier national park was a dream come true for me. I wanted to experience the glaciers before it became hard to find. When we were making plans for visiting YellowStone national park, we couldnt leave out Glacier. We checked the trail statuses at trail status reports,  and luck favored us, the two trails which we were interested in were open till the summit.

Our plan was to drive to Glacier from Yellowstone national Park. This was a major concern for us since it was 6 long hours of drive. Well, until we started driving. We broke up the drive so that we could spend the night at Helena, which is 3 hours from YellowStone.

We started driving from YellowStone on 7/23/2016 at around 6:30PM. The drive itself was breath taking. You would be driving just beside Hebgen Lake and earthquake lake surrounded by mountains. It looked like straight out of a painting. 

You would be climbing the mountains and reaching altitudes like 6000ft. You would be driving right through grass meadows, with a speed limit of 80mph! We wished if we could stop in between and take pictures, but with such a high speed the options to stop in between are less. I cant explain enough, this is one of the best drive we have EVER taken in USA. A full rainbow beside the highway! This is the maximum my camera could fit in :D

Driving through countless meadows!

We reached Helena by 10PM. We went for shopping after checking into our hotel. We packed food, water, lunch and snacks for the next day at Glacier.

On 7/30/2016, we started by watching the sunrise from our hotel window!We got ready and hit the road by 7AM. More beautiful places, and awesome drive.

Our plan for the day was hiking to Grinnell glacier. It is a 11 mile hike from the many glacier hotel. You will have to hike around 2 lake, swift current lake and Lake Josephine and start climbing the mountains. There are boating in both of these lakes, so if you can book a ticket very well in advance you can shave off the 4 miles from the hike. We had done that and had boat tickets for 11 AM. So our hike was about 8 miles(7.6).

We reached the Many Glacier hotel by 10:30AM. While driving to the hotel we watched our first bear at Glacier national park. We checked in at the boat deck and purchased a bear spray from the gift shop. Real costly though! :D

We started the boating on swift current lake at 11AM. Beautiful views from the boat. The lake you see is the swift current lake and the mountain behind it is Mt Wilbur. The unique shapes of the mountains are carved by the glacier by many years.

More mountains above swift current lake. The highest peak is Mt Gould and the horizontal row of mountains are called garden wall. This particular mountain range is home for lots of wildflowers and shrubs and can be traversed through Highline trail.

After the shuttle boat tour at Swift current lake you hike to Lake Josephine boat deck. You ride on 'Morning eagle' boat to the Grinnell lake trail head at Lake Josephine. The captain of the boat talked about how an avalanche destroyed their previous boat in that lake. This is the only one boat in the lake and it keeps shuttling to help people cross the lake. View from Lake Josephine. The almost-heart shaped glacier is 'Salamander Glacier'. Grinnell glacier is just below it hidden by angels wing. Angel's wing is the inverted-v-shaped mountain you see at the foreground.

From Lake Josephine it is 3.8 miles both ways. You have to be really prepared with lots of water and food. The climate is slightly cold near the lake areas especially in the morning, so it is better to start with a sweat shirt. The first 0.5 mile almost was to climb up the mountain from the lake level. The trail passes through several switch backs and it is a little strenuous. But we took our time, rested in between and made it up slowly.

From this point on wards our hike took a different level. Jaw dropping scenaries and gradual elevation changes. It will leave you speechless and you wont even feel tired. After hiking a little further we saw the Grinnell lake. This is formed by the melting grinnel glacier. Turquoise colored grinnell lake was a pretty sight.Angel's wing getting closer. 

The pic below has Grinnell lake at the bottom, heart shaped salamander glacier, and gem Glacier at the top left side. Gem Glacier is the tiniest glacier in the park, which once was big. The  waterfall is the Grinnell falls and it is fed by the Grinnell Glacier.

As we passed Grinnel lake, the trail became a little sharper with steep edges. Though you would be hiking the mountains with steep edges, you would be more into the beauty around you than feeling scared. I enjoyed it thoroughly and didnt even get time to think about my fear of heights!  When people approach you from the opposite direction though, just be cautious and take turns at steep areas.

Angel's wing getting closer. Grinnell glacier is just behind it.

By around 2'o clock we were wearing off and we decided to have our lunch. we saw many marmots on the trail and spotted this one playing around us for getting a share of our food. 

After having lunch we were re energized and continued the hike. When in the trail you will have to pass through numerous ice cold streams and a waterfall. Since we hiked at around noon time it was a real pleasure for me. I walked through all the streams and got drenched in the waterfall. This trail so far best one I have ever hiked.

Even though you get drenched by the waterfall you have enough time to get dried off. Especially because you are walking just beneath the sun, with no shade at all!
As we progressed more interesting landscape showed up. This was a flower meadow with tons of wild flowers, and bear grass.

Bear Grass bloom

At around 3 miles you get your first rest area. From here the next 0.6 mile is a real strenuous hike. You will be climbing steep switch backs to get to the grinnell glacier overlook. Though tough,while doing this you MUST definitely turn back and look at this view. You see all three lakes behind you, Grinnell lake, Lake Josephine and swift current lake at the far side.

And alas here it is! Grinnel glacier. At the center top part is the gem Glacier. Grinnel glacier is said to be a 152 Acre glacier. 

A close up of Salamander Glacier. I love how the waterfall originate from the heart shaped glacier.

From the overlook we hiked down to the Upper Grinnell lake. We felt so happy and content. We were witnessing a dying feature of nature.

We reached the lake by 3PM. We spent almost 45 mins there. We rested and had snacks. I really wanted to spend more time, but our last boat ride from Lake Josephine was at 5:15PM. I felt like we worked really hard to get to this view, and so we should spend more time here. 

Resting beside the lake formed from Grinnell Glacier. As the glacier melts and shrinks because of the global warming, the lake will become larger and vast.

We left the glacier by 3:45PM. Since we had to make it to the Lake Josephine in 1:30 hours, we literally ran most of the part back. Anyways we made it in time and had one of the very memorable days of our life. A bullhorn sheep on our way back.

Back at many glacier hotel, beautifully lighted mountain ranges.

We left the many glacier area by 7PM and drove to our cabin at St Mary. End of a very beautiful day.