Day 4 - Logan Pass and Hidden Lake

Our s'mores over the stove worked okay, although it wasn't quite as nice as over the campfire. We made sure to bear proof our campsite before we went to bed. If any bears came, they didn't say anything. It was a little cold sleeping but not too bad. Mostly getting up was cold.


We headed for the shuttle stop by our campground, which allegedly picks up every 15-30 minutes. We waited an hour for the Logan Pass shuttle, which didn't come. We finally got on the Avalanche Creek shuttle, which was a bad idea. Instead of going all the way to Logan Pass, the shuttle unloads at Avalanche and you have to get in line for a shuttle coming from Apgar going to Logan, which of course is already full. We had to wait another hour and weren't on our way to Logan until 11.


There is road construction along Going to the Sun Road and there are three places where it is one lane, causing some long delays. When we got to the top it was windy but not too cold. We hiked up the Hidden Lake Overlook trail. The views were good, but it was hard going, straight up the steps part of the time, and we weren't used to the altitude yet.


Out by Hidden Lake we saw lots of mountain goats. There was also a lady who gave us her binoculars to use to look at some bighorn sheep. They were pretty far away, but we could tell one had really big horns. We opted not to hike down to the lake, and sat and ate our lunch near the overlook. Going down was much easier. It is hard to believe all of it will be snow covered in a month or so!


We took the shuttle down the east side to St. Mary, which has more prairie near the park entrance. From there we turned around and came back to Apgar, which took three shuttles. We saw where there had been an avalanche last January. There was a 3000 foot drop and all the trees in its path were ripped out of the ground. Some were still alive but many were dead. We learned it was two fires in 2002 that killed so many trees by Lake Macdonald and up a ways.

Dinner tonight was macaroni. Tomorrow we will have to buy groceries, but we made it four days on what we had. We ran out of time today to do the Avalanche Lake and Trail of Cedars hike, but we didn't want to miss the last shuttle to the campground. Hopefully tomorrow we will get to see more parts of the park.



After dinner we went to the ranger program at Apgar ampitheater. The ranger's name was Teagan and she is a geologist. She talked about how the mountains were formed and then shaped by glaciers. To the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:

Silt, tilt, slide, and glide

That's how Glacier formed...

She was interesting and made it fun. She also talked about how climate change is speeding up the melting of the glaciers. By 2020, the last of the 25 remaining glaciers in the park will be gone.

Afterwards we cooked more s'mores over our stove. The campground is full again tonight (we decided not to move) but all except one group are quiet.