Glacier National Park – Grinnell Glacier Trail

Today’s big activity was hiking up to Grinnell Glacier in the Many Glacier region of Glacier National Park. Altogether the hike was about 12 miles round trip and about 2,000 feet elevation gain – so a really good workout. In addition to Grinnell Glacier, the hike had spectacular views of Swiftcurrent Lake, Lake Josephine, and Grinnell Lake. The best part of the hike was seeing the glacier and the glacier-fed lakes at the top – the reward for all the hard work to get up there.

We saw wildlife during our hike – a moose, a deer, and a family of mountain goats. The goats literally just wandered onto the trail, and the mama goat stared me down as she walked past. I stood still – no quick movements – because although she was probably harmless, she had both horns and babies. The baby goats were, of course, super cute and pretty happy to eat grass and plants along the trail.

The weather was perfect – sunny and breezy – for most of the day. Within the last few miles of the trail, cold rain suddenly came upon us. I was prepared with a rain jacket, but we took refuge under a tree so that Phil wouldn’t get soaked. The rain passed in about 5-10 minutes, and the sun came back out. We honestly thought that the weather had cleared for the rest of the day and continued toward the trail head, but a legit thunderstorm moved in quickly behind us. We were very lucky to make it *off* the trail just in time to miss the storm. We passed many people (including some with babies on their backs) who were heading up the trail toward the glacier and undoubtedly got caught in pouring rain (and possibly hail and lightning, according to the weather forecast I read later) with very little to no shelter available. It underscored the importance of being prepared for all kinds of weather when in the mountains, because the weather can change very quickly and unexpectedly.