09/11/2021
Our last day in Glacier was a cloudy and cool one (with some drizzle). We took it easy on this day, sleeping in and starting late. We were tired of the crowds and decided to look for something off of the beaten path. Glacier National Park is one million acres, but the majority of visitors probably only see a tenth of it, including us. Hiking in Glacier can be strenuous, especially if you're not used to the altitude. So most people stick to the scenic Going To The Sun Road drive, and the trails along that route..
When I talked to a park ranger on our first day, he showed me a nice easy trail near lake McDonald. But before we went there, we did a little exploring, and turned left down a road right after entering the park (at the west entrance). It took us down this quiet gravel road to a few lesser traveled trails. We didn't hike these as we knew nothing about them, but the drive to them was quite nice.. Below is where we crossed the Middle Fork Flathead River. There's a pull off (naturally) so we stopped, enjoyed the solitude and took some pics..
I snapped a quick phone pic before we left... I could definitely see myself living out here..
The scenery along the road was so beautiful and serene..
That beautiful road ended at the trailhead, so we turned around and headed back the way we came..
It was crazy how different this felt than our time along GTTS Road. Being in this forest area felt like we were in a completely different park, and the mountains and higher elevations were just about 8 miles away.. I'm a huge fan of an old growth forest, there's hardly any of them where I live.
Obligatory phone selfie on the bridge over Fish Creek..
And as much as we loved this trail, we were not prepared for the amazing place that we ended up... It literally took our breath away..
See the patches of grass along the shoreline in the above photo? This is where perspective comes into play. I simply lowered my camera behind one of those patches of grass to achieve the following photo..
This is a panoramic that my cousin took with her phone..
The sun kept dancing in and out of the clouds, so some of my photos are a bit darker to compensate so you can still see the mountains in the distance..
I want to be clear about the next photo because many photos of the colorful rocks at Glacier are filtered or over processed to brighten the colors. I did not filter the below photo. This is what I saw. I only tweaked it so you would see the same, because no matter how good a camera is, it will never see as well as the human eye. The photo following this one shows exactly what I did to get the desired results..
And as you can see, I did not intensify the color at all..
We stayed at the shoreline for a little over an hour. We would've stayed longer, but it gets dark in the woods pretty quickly, so we figured we better head back..
A Montana sunset as we bid ado to Glacier National Park..
And on the way back, we had to stop at The Huckleberry Patch. I never realized huckleberries were a real thing until we got to Montana! And they are TASTY! I brought home some huckleberry honey.. MMM...
Thanks for visiting my blog. If you've ever considered visiting Glacier, I hope that my blog was helpful in some way. If you've never thought about Glacier before, I HIGHLY recommend at least one visit in your lifetime. It's truly worth every minute..
There's more to come! Our road trip was 3 weeks long, and PACKED full of places! I have THIRTEEN folders of photos still to share!! Next up..
Grand Tetons and Yellowstone!!
Keep an eye out!
Glacier National Park:
The Huckleberry Patch
** ALL photos on this blog are property of Christi Bushby, copyrighted and protected as such by law.