Our Last Day at Glacier NP

Sunday Sept 5th – This was our last day at Glacier NP. We would be heading towards Yellowstone on Monday. The weather was mild when we woke up, so we took our coffee and went down to the lake. So peaceful and quiet….with the sun just coming up over the mountains.

After breakfast, we drove over to Avalanche Gorge and walked the Trail of the Cedars.

This trail is about a mile of boardwalk through an old growth forest of cedars. Very beautiful…..and reminded me of the Black Bayou walk. This side of Glacier Park is wetter, and you could really see the difference with lush ferns and mosses covering the ground.

 

The Avalanche Lake trailhead was just off  the Cedars boardwalk, and followed the creek up the gorge for 2 miles to the lake.

We took our time, stopping often and noting the differences on this side of Glacier Park, and just enjoying the day.

Along the way……this deer came out of the woods just in front of us. It stopped…..and we stopped….then it took a few cautious steps towards us, before heading off the trail and up the hill.

Avalanche Lake  lies in a natural ‘amphitheatre’ that was scooped out by a glacier. This end of the lake had a lot of dead wood that had washed down from the mountainside. The lake had a blue/green color and the wood on the beach looked like driftwood that had washed up along an ocean beach.

The trail followed the lake all the way to the far end.

We sat and enjoyed a snack by the lake side……it was too early for lunch. The weather forecast for the day had mentioned a possibility of rain moving in and the clouds were darkening as we headed back on the trail. Suddenly….we found ourselves being pelted with sleet!  A LOT of sleet! Then rain…and the mild temperatures plummeted to around 45 degrees. We pulled on our rain jackets and just put our heads down and started hiking out.  By the time that we had gotten back to our car, we were fairly well wet and chilled.

We stopped by McDonald Lodge which was on our way back to our campground……

 

and spent some time sitting by the fireplace in their lobby to warm up. Then, we had a nice lunch of Buffalo burgers in the dining room before heading back to our camper.

We enjoyed our last evening at Glacier keeping warm by the propane heater and marveling at the times that we had had…..…and wondering what the weather would bring as we head south tomorrow, towards Yellowstone.