Would you rather A) hike 15 miles, see dead trees, and see two robins or B) hike 5 miles, see mountains/lakes, and see mountain goats, big horn sheep, and bears? We did both and are definitely voting for B!
7/11/24 - After our 9a-1p Red Jammer tour (more on that below), Pat and I started on what we thought would be a beautiful 9 mile hike around Lake McDonald. It ended up being a trail with no shade, downed trees, and high weeds from an old forest fire. We've learned Grizzlies like this terrain so we had to say "Hey Bear!" every 2 minutes so we kept any away. And seeing the lake was actually a rarity! By the time we realized how long the hike would actually be, we were halfway with no shorter route options. We ran out of water at mile 11 but then "borrowed" some from a faucet outside of a cabin. We were so happy when we got back to civilization and able to catch a shuttle bus back to our vehicle!!!
7/12/24 - I didn't let Pat talk me into the Highline Trail, opting for the "very popular" 3 mile Hidden Lake Overlook trail. The snow was still melting so we had to walk on the snow for a good portion of it. We saw several Mountain Goats, Big Horn Sheep, 2 Grizzlies in the distance, and several beautiful mountains and alpine lakes.
After that, we drove to the "Many Glacier" region of the park where we did a 2 mile walk through the woods to a lake in the hopes of seeing a moose. No luck with that but we did see another Grizzly up the hill.
On the way back to the RV, the sun was setting and we were treated with more wildlife right on the road!
7/13/24 - We packed up and made the 5-hour drive north to our next spot near Calgary, Alberta, where we will stay 6 nights to see the Calgary Stampede and Banff National Park.
I’m sorry about your “bummer hike” but so glad you did not have a bear encounter!
The picture of the mountain goat was great. I wanted to run my fingers through its coat. I remember seeing these along the alpine trail when I visited a few years ago.