Thursday - Junior Ranger Badges and Many Glacier Bust

We packed up this morning and said goodbye to our townhome.  Today we head back to Canada to spend the night in Calgary before we fly out tomorrow.  We enjoyed another breakfast at Montana Coffee Traders before heading on our way.  Our plan was to drive the entire Going to the Sun Road and making some stops and possible hikes on the east side of the park.

Our first stop was the Apgar visitor center to get the girls' Junior Ranger badges.  This officially makes 14 badges!!  The Porter's set on ahead of us to hike a bit of the Highline trail before we met up in Many Glacier.

 St. Mary Lake on the east side of the park.

Cell service was scarce so it took us a while to get in touch with Tripp and Angie.  They were not able to find parking at Logan Pass so they decided to skip the Highline trail hike and head straight to Many Glacier.  That, too, turned out to be a bust!  Apparently that side of the park was full.  FULL???  What??  We are leaving today!  We live in the Carolinas!  Can we please just drive through if we promise not to park anywhere?  Nope!  This was sad news folks.  We missed Apikuni Falls, Lake Josephine, and Grinnell Lake and Glacier.  This was sad news indeed.

We hung our heads and set out for Calgary.  This only confirms that we must one day go back to Glacier National Park.  I distinctly remember thinking this at all the parks.  Our nation truly has a wonderful National Park system.  We later learned that last year, Glacier broke attendance records with 3.3 million visitors.  

Back in Calgary, James and Tripp took the girls swimming at the indoor pool in the hotel.  We ate dinner at Chili's because it was walkable from the hotel and were too tired to make any more decisions.  Off to bed to rest up for our next big adventure: flying home!

Wednesday - Hidden Lake and St. Mary Falls

We had an ambitious three hikes planned for today but only managed to squeeze in 1 1/2.  Our first hike started at Logan Pass which took us to about halfway on Going to the Sun Road.  This day it was more like "Going to the Clouds Road" as it was super overcast.  Despite the low lying clouds, the views were still pretty spectacular.   The drive was beautiful and we took advantage of some lookout spots along the way.

Snow on the side of the road!!  Of course, these southerners had to get out and take a picture.  And, no, I have no idea what SE is doing!

Our first hike of the day was to Hidden Lake.  It was a 1.2 mile hike to the overlook to see the lake.  Folks, it was cold!

Mountain goats!

The visiter center shrouded by clouds

As it was an additional 1.5 miles to get down to the lake and our toes were frozen, we decided to enjoy the views from the top and save our energy for the next hike.

Stunning!

Avalanche Lake in the distance.

It was too cold to enjoy our picnic lunch outside, so we huddled in the car and cranked up the heat while we ate.  Next, we drove farther up Going to the Sun Road to the trailhead for St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls.

We made it the mile to St. Mary Falls, but that was as far as we got.  One of my children (I don't remember which one now) was pitching a fit, so we decided to save them, ourselves and all the other hikers and call it a day.  

We finished the day with dinner in Columbia Falls at a cute little pizza place.