On a path to heaven.

Tuesday 4 August - Day 8
Babb, MT to Many Glacier, MT: 15 miles

Let us begin by saying that our hike today was beyond words. From the wildlife to the scenery, it all was too much to take in.

Got up this morning and rode back to Many Glacier to the trail head to Grinnell Glacier. The hike is 6 miles in to the glacier. The trail was really nice in the beginning but as we climbed, it became narrower and steeper. Most of the trail hugged the mountain side and the drop was a long one. At some points we were crossing over run off streams and at one point we actually had to walk through a waterfall.

As you can see we were entering bear country:



The first two miles of the hike we were with a local guy who has logged many miles of hiking in Glacier. He was telling us about the park and the flora and fauna. We eventually left him behind. As we hiked we got to see quite a lot of wildlife. We saw a wolverine, which according to a lot of the other hikers is a rare sight. We spotted some mountain goats but they were really far up the mountain and tough to see. We saw many squirrels and chipmunks.

Here is a view at the beginning of the hike:

This is another image of the trail:

As you can see, one shouldn't hike this if you have a fear of heights:

Here is some kind of groundhog that scared us both on the trail:

The highlight of the hike was just as we reached the edge of the glacier. About 8 – 10 big horned sheep walked right across the path. They were really close to us. It was amazing just how tall these sheep are. Once we watched the sheep cross through we crested the edge of the mountain and there was the glacier. For anyone out there who thinks global warming is a hoax, they need to see this glacier. More than half of it has melted. We hiked right down to the edge of the glacier. Once we spent some time at the glacier, we started our hike back down.

Here is what is left of Grinnell Glacier:

Gumby and Pokie hope that we can stop the global warming!

Here is the view from the glacier looking back down into the valley:

Man on a point:

On the hike back down we spotted a lone moose way down in the valley. We arrived back down in the valley at the bikes around 2:30pm. The weather had greatly changed. The temps had dropped and it started misting. On the ride back to the motel it was only 50 degrees.

The hike today was awesome. It was really neat to see the backcountry of the park. Tomorrow we are off to ride the Going to the Sun Road which runs directly through the park. Then we are off to Lolo.