For the past year we have been bookmarking all the places we’d like to visit once we hit the road full time. Glacier National Park wasn’t on that list until a few weeks before our maiden voyage. During our visit in Michigan, we narrowed down our route and realized Glacier was on the way, so why not stop and check it out? So we put the visit into our route and prepared for adventures within the park. We made our walking sticks from the Maple branches at Erins parents and we bought our hiking shoes and camel backs.
We were all set.
On August 11, 2018 lightening struck inside Glacier and caused some major wildfires but instead of cancelling the visit, we pushed through and vowed to make the best of it.
We arrived on August 16. Smokey skies covered our view of this beautiful park, which was a disappointment to say the least. Going in the sun rd. was closed from the west side inward. Of course we were boon docking west of the park, so we had to drive all the way around to enter the east side and we will be the first to say DO NOT TAKE 89 North until the construction is done. That was the worst ride EVER. Any who….we entered, drove to Logans Pass and then proceeded to our parking lot for the trails Erin found.
Originally the hike was only 3 miles, but once you are on the trail it was actually hard to figure out which one you are actually on. At least for us it was. Once we hit mile 2 we came to a swing bridge, the sign next to it said Florence Falls was only 3.5 miles away. We figured why not, we were feeling good, so let’s continue.
That was our mistake.
We hiked through the most overgrown trails, calling out so the bears knew we were there, and exhausted by the time we found Florence Falls. Beautiful, yes. Worth the 5 miles one way, no. The first set of waterfalls we found would have been just fine *lol* The sun was setting, we had to turn around the push through berry bushes for the 5 miles return trip before sun set. That’s a big no no in grizzly territory. By the last 2 miles, Erin was in unbelievable pain but she managed to get done. Relieved to be back at our truck, we hopped in and found the nearest steakhouse on Rt 2 headed west.
We created a video to share our experience with our followers. Enjoy!