Sand Dune Arch with the Junior Rangers

 This arch was a favorite of the kids.  It had a cool entrance through fins and loads of sand for the kids to play with.  Climbing up to the top was a hit as well.

 Look carefully for pinky bear falling.  He had quite a ride!

 

On our way out we stopped at the visitor's center 

 

to hand in their paperwork to get their Junior Ranger badges.  It's always fun to see them sworn in.

Delicate Arch, yes that's the one on the Utah License Plate

 After the Windows we headed to Delicate Arch.  We decided as a group that we could only do the short trip since we'd already done so many things that day.  It was an interesting perspective but you are definitely far away from it.

 

 We packed up our campsite the next morning and had time to burn so we headed to Sand Dune Arch (see next post) first and then back to Delicate Arch to do the 'real' hike.  Wolfe Ranch (an old farm settlement) was encountered quickly.

 

 The petroglyphs were cool.

 

 The views from the top were very nice and would have been even better had it not been cloudy.

 

Relaxing afternoon crawling around Skyline Arch

 After our Fiery Furnace tour we came back to the campsite for lunch and then spent some time exploring around our campsite.  Skyline Arch was just a hop, skip, and a jump behind us and the kids had fun climbing the rocks.

 

 

Seven Mile Hike to Grinnell Lake

Drove to Many Glacier today to do the Grinnell Lake hike.  You leave the park at one point and this is the view of Glacier National Park from there.

 This was a flat hike with lots to see.  We went past Swiftcurrent Lake, Lake Josephine,

 

 

and part of Cataract Creek before making it to Grinnell Lake.  If you want, there is a boat shuttle service across the first two lakes but we are glad we didn't use it.  It would have been $75 for the four of us and the kids ended up making the whole seven mile hike without a problem. 

The wildflowers were abundant and unique:

 

At times the vegetation was taller than the kids.  I was wondering what they could possibly be looking at.  The kids made it through the hike by playing the 'would you rather' game.  For example, would you rather eat a juicy hamburger or eat a bowl of fruit.  It was amazing how long this kept them going and how creative we had to be to keep this going.

 

We made it to the gorgeous lake and had lunch.

 This was only the second time on this trip I got them to both nap!  I need to keep making them do seven mile hikes I guess!

Hike: Grinnell Lake

Trails Used:  Grinnell Lake

Distance: 7.49 miles

Difficulty: Easy (for adults anyhow)
Overall average: 2.1 mph
Overall Time: 3 hrs, 35 mins
Total Ascent: 1723 ft.  (I don't know if this was right, it seemed very flat)

 

 

My garbage man:

View from our campground:

We headed over to Saint Mary Lake after dinner:

The kids messed around on some driftwood and had fun finding unique looking rocks:

Look at those crazy hiking socks!

Hidden Lake and Sunrift Gorge

Went for a run towards Johns Lake this morning.  Started on the cedar trail for a bit and then headed towards the lake.  I was pretty worried about bears since I was all by myself, running, and had no bear spray. Probably not the smartest but I wanted to maintain the shape I was in for entirety of this trip.

Run: Johns Lake

Trails Used:  Avalanche Campground to Cedar Trail, to Avalanche Lake Trail to Johns Lake

Distance: 4.91 miles

Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 5.5 mph
Overall Time: 0 hrs, 53 mins
Total Ascent: 856 ft.

 

Started the morning off at Lake McDonald Lodge for breakfast.  Save your money and go somewhere good when you leave the National Park system.  This makes three for three of yucky meals in the National Parks!  This was by far the worst.

 

 

 

 

They had an inedible, rubbery, barely warm breakfast buffet.  Luckily, they let the kids onto our ticket ($13.70 each) so we didn't have to pay for them too.  Then I would have felt really bad.  It is a shame since the lodge itself has a nice ambiance. 

 After breakfast we headed out on the bus for Logan Pass.

 

The views 

 

from the top of Logan Pass are outstanding.  This mountain feature is called The Wall:

 

It was a cool and windy day to do the Hidden Lake overlook but we decided to go ahead with it.

 

 

The kids had a great time hiking through the snow, sliding on their butts, and throwing snowballs at each other.  It almost made them forget they were hiking.

 

We saw many mountain goats.

 

 

 

They didn't seem to find it worrisome that all these people were up there climbing around.  I got some great photos of everyone around the goats.

 

 

Overall, the trail was wet, snow packed, and busy.  The view was nice

 

but not too different from what we can see in Colorado so I don't know if I'd recommend the trail or not.  There are so many cool trails to do in Glacier I would personally opt for another.

 

Hike: Hidden Lake Overlook

Trails Used:  Hidden Lake Overlook Trail

Distance: 2.85 miles

Difficulty: Moderate (it is tough walking through the snow)
Overall average: 1.5 mph
Overall Time: 1 hr, 53min
Total Ascent: 680 ft.

When we were done hiking we headed down the east side of the pass for the first time just to check some things out.  We learned that the bus that was so awesome on the west side is awful on the east.  We ended up waiting 40 minutes in the cold wind at the top of Logan Pass before we finally were able to get on a bus.  We took it to the Sun Rift Gorge stop

 

 

and walked down to the Baring Falls.

Hike: Sun Rift Gorge

Trails Used:  Baring Falls Trail

Distance: .43 miles

Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 2.0 mph
Overall Time: 0 hrs, 12 min
Total Ascent: 313 ft.

 

 

Had to wait another 20 minutes to catch the bus back up to Logan Pass.  On the west side it seemed like there were buses every 5 minutes.  C has still yet to figure out which way the binoculars go.

 

 When we finally made it home we had taco noodles.

We put the kids to bed and started packing everything up for the big move to the east side the next day.