Grinnell Glacier, Glacier National Park, Montana August 2, 2024

This would be my fourth time hiking the Grinnell Glacier Trail.  The last time was in 2016.  I could not remember a whole lot about the route, I did check back to my blog stories for a refresher.  That reminded me why I competed the hike three times already and was totally game to go for a beauty filled fourth!  

It's a five minute walk from my room in the forest to the Grinnell Glacier trailhead.  My plan was to start hiking at 7:00am to beat the heat for the elevation gain and with hopes of not being the first on the trail.  I left at 6:55am to walk to the trailhead arriving at it to see the parking lot full and vehicles already lining the roadside.  Yet, the only others in sight were three people gearing up at their car.  

  at the trailhead

About ten minutes into the hike, I arrived at the Swiftcurrent Lake Boat Dock.  You can see the Many Glacier Hotel, it's that tiny dark area in the middle on the edge of the water to the left of the darkest line of trees that come from the right.  It was here that I had to already delayer down to my short sleeve shirt.

The first couple of kilometres are flat and meander through the trees and along Josephine Lake.  

Then the climbing starts!  That's Josephine Lake down below with the boat dock in the middle.  If you prefer to cut off some hiking distance, the boat goes from Many Glacier Hotel to the far end of Swiftcurrent Lake, take a very short hike, then you board another boat at Josephine Lake and take it to the dock below and hike up to here from there.   

Shortly after the junction to carry on along the Grinnell Glacier Trail is where the bears have been hanging out.  By now I knew there were a few people behind me who I passed along the way yet I was not sure how close I was to people ahead of me.  I slowed my pace to know the folks behind me were in sight.  

This was the only wild life I saw along this stretch!  

Time came to where you could see forever and this was the part that I remembered from when I was last here!  That is Grinnell Lake below me. There was a couple from Seattle Washington hiking at my pace and enjoying the area as much as I was.  We passed each other many times, we chatted, we offered to take each others photos.  

a view of Grinnell Lake 

a Pine Siskin

I remembered there was a waterfall that I would need to hike through!  This is it!  There was no way to avoid getting wet and I was OK with that. By now it was very hot and it was only about 9:00am.  I began passing by lots of people who were struggling.  

view as the trail continued to ascend

I love when you can see forever!  The trail winds through the middle of the photo and you can see it from the right all the way to the left.   There are dozens and dozens and dozens of people on the trail ahead of me that appear as mere moving dots.  It was sweltering, I came prepared for that.  Loads of water, electrolytes, sunscreen and continuously soaking my neck bandana in glacier water at each stream.  

"hippie on a stick" lining the trail

Myself and a few others stopped in a sheltered spot to rest for a few minutes before taking on the last tough kilometre climb.  This Big Horn Sheep came along the trail, we stayed still while it stopped to inspect us, it walked on by and entered into the bushes.   

I have no photos of the last climb up, I was focused on just getting it done.  When I got to the high point this was the view in front of me.  I could see some water down below in the snow.  It was time to descend.  

This was what I descended to!  This is Upper Grinnell Lake!  The lake is much bigger than when I was here in 2016 which only means the glacier is much smaller!  The colour of the water was incredible and even more incredible was seeing all the pieces of the glacier floating in it.  There were many dozens of people sitting or laying on the large flat rocks that lined the lakeside and up the slope behind me.  

This is how I choose to document the accomplishment of reaching the end of the Grinnell Glacier Trail.  I picked this piece of the glacier out of the lake.  I see it being shaped like a heart!  I have another photo of where I held it close to my heart. I called it my own and let it begin to melt as my heart melted too!  

my piece of the Grinnell Glacier on display

After taking all the photos I wanted, I found a big flat rock and just settled on it. Along came this heard of Big Horn Sheep.  We all stood up and stood guard while they passed on through the area where we all were.  There were a few more Sheep outside of this photo range.  It was quite the sight to see!  

I stayed for about an hour just enjoying the experience, taking photos of others for them, chatting with people and fuelling up for the hike back.  Time came to get on with the hike back.  I knew I had to ascend before the descending began.  Once I was back at the high point, this was the view when I looked back down.   WOW the glacier is small!  

This was the view in the other direction and the direction I would now be headed, back along the trail I came here on.  The closest lake is Grinnell Lake, in the middle is Josephine Lake and the grey area at the far end is Swiftcurrent Lake.  This was the second last photo I took. There was a bit more elevation to conquer on the way out and I was so thankful once I completed that.  

I was thankful too that I started the hike at 7:00am. There were probably close to one hundred who were on their way up that I passed while I was on my way down and the majority of them were struggling.  I stayed focused on just moving forward, drinking water and electrolytes plus continuing to soak my bandana in glacier water at every opportunity.  This was the last photo I took!  I knew I only had about ten more minutes to go.  This is another photo of Swiftcurrent Lake with Many Glacier Hotel in the middle. 

I stopped by my room to drop off my back,  put my sandals on then walked over to the store to buy treats.  I bought a container of Salted Carmel Ice Cream and a big bag of barbecue chips.  Once back at my room, I collapsed on my bed feeling pleasantly depleted.  I devoured the ice cream and chips and washed all that down with a Moose Drool can of beer!  

As I put together this story, I have to say hiking this trail this time hit harder for all good reasons than the previous three adventures there! While each of those three were special in their own way, I truly cherish this time.  It took much more work to get the plan in place.  Over the years I have learned to be better at living in the moment, becoming one with what is around me and making sure to take it all in.  Over the years I gained experience with preparing for and managing conditions throughout a hike.  This had to be the hottest conditions I ever hiked twenty kilometres in.  Age may play a factor too in being more thankful, grateful and appreciative.  I will hold today as a treasure close to my heart!  

 my gpx recording from today's hike is in read