ENCORE II: PIE AGAIN
Dave
and I tackled an ambitious hike on Thursday.
I was eager to do the hike from Going to the Sun Road over Piegan Pass to Many Glacier. My original plan, before Dave arrived, was to
drive over to Many Glacier early in the morning. From there I’d catch a Glacier Park, Inc.
shuttle to St. Mary. In St. Mary I’d
pick up the park bus, which would take me to the trailhead. From there, I’d just have to walk back to my
car at the Many Glacier hotel.
Since
Dave had joined me, the logistics were a little easier. We drove separately over to the Many Glacier
Hotel, where we left Dave’s car. He then
rode with me back over to St. Mary. We
arrived at the Visitor’s Center just in time to catch the bus up to Logan
Pass. We got off at the Siyeh Bend stop and started up the trail to Piegan Pass.
Early
on we followed a pretty stream, with views of the mountains surrounding Piegan Pass ahead.
Then we turned into the forest, and hiked in deep shade for a couple of
miles. We passed the junction with the Siyeh Pass Trail near Preston Park but continued
ahead. We reached a meadow at tree line,
which offered a great lunch spot. We stopped
there, where we could enjoy views back to the south to the Blackfoot Glacier
and the Jackson Glacier. Directly across
from us was the Piegan Glacier, high up on Piegan Mountain.
It
was another cloudy morning, and a shower passed through shortly after we
stopped. This was annoying, but it was
nothing like what we’d endured the previous day on the way to Grinnell
Glacier. We finished lunch, and the rain
passed. Fortunately the clouds stayed
high above us, so they didn’t muck up the views on the way up to the pass. The views from the pass were quite nice,
particularly back the way we came. The
view ahead didn’t seem too exciting at first.
However, shortly after we began our descent a small tarn came into
view. It was a brilliant blue, apparently
from the small remnant glaciers above.
A
long descent on switchbacks followed. We
reached tree line, where we found an abundance of huckleberries. We crossed several streams, and eventually
descended to the base of Morning Eagle Falls.
This is one of the nicer waterfalls I’ve seen in Glacier. We made a brief stop there for photos before
resuming the hike.
We
followed Cataract Creek downstream before crossing it on a footbridge. We allegedly passed below Feather Plume Falls
along here, but we didn’t actually see it.
Feather Plume Falls is on a small tributary, and it must be seasonal. We reached a junction and headed left,
towards Grinnell Lake. The most direct
route to Many Glacier Hotel is to the right, but I wanted to see Grinnell Lake
again. We’d enjoyed nice views of it
from above the previous day, but I wanted to see it from the lakeshore.
Before
long we reached another creek crossing.
This one was unbridged, and rock hopping wasn’t an option. Luckily there was a fallen tree that we were
able to cross on. From there a quick
descent brought us to the creek just downstream from the lake. We took a short side trip up to check it out. Although the lake is beautiful, the sky had
clouded up again, which mucked up the photos.
In fact, we were just leaving when a thunderstorm rolled across the
mountains. The thunder kept getting
louder as we hustled down the trail.
Before
long we reached a bridge over Cataract Creek.
I took the side trip up to Hidden Falls, which is a small waterfall in a
neat little grotto. The rain started
when I reached the overlook. I hurried
back down the main trail, where I was startled by a deer.
Dave
and I put on rain gear for the hike out.
The storm was violent, with pounding rain and hail and frequent flashes
of lightning. It was a little
nerve-wracking, but at least we were in the relative safety of the trees. We passed by Lake Josephine, and the rain finally
let up when we reached Swiftcurrent Lake. We were treated to some nice views here as
the storm cleared the peaks to the west.
We hiked on to the Many Glacier Hotel and then to Dave’s car.
The
hike was quite nice, despite the weather.
I’d like to go back to Grinnell Lake in better conditions for
photos. It was a fairly busy hike, as we
ran into several other groups around Piegan
Pass. Later in the day the trail was
pretty quiet, though the weather probably had a lot to do with that.
That
evening we had dinner at Two Sisters Café, which I like a bit more than Park
Place. Two Sisters is more expensive,
but I prefer the food there, and they serve beer. Sadly, both places were out of huckleberry
pie, but that didn’t stop us from ordering different varieties each night. The weather had cleared up by the time we
returned to camp, so we had another fire and a few more beers.
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