Avalanche Lake-The site at the end of our hike!
The Red Bus Tour
Burned Forest
June 19
When we woke up yesterday morning Steve announced that we weren’t leaving Glacier that day! What? We’re supposed to be moving on! Alaska is THE GOAL! During our Red Bus tour the driver had described to us the difference between Yellowstone NP & Glacier NP. He said that YNP was a park you could visit by driving through & around. It has a network of roads so that the visitor could see most of the park from his car, but GNP has only one road (Going to the Sun Road) through it which is not even accessible to vehicles the size of ours, so the BF is restricted from most of the park. GNP, the driver said, is a backpackers’ paradise! Sleeping on that information, Steve declared we would rent a car for the day & drive into the park & spend much of the day hiking. What a great idea as I felt also that we had not really seen this beautiful area. We had a wonderful day! We hiked the Avalanche Lake trail which took us about 2 ½ miles up the mountain & basically along the rushing steam of water & by several gorges till we reached the top where we found a beautiful glacier lake with mountains surrounding it. The hike took us departed the lodge only by a wooden boat which still exists today & which departed from Apgar Village at the entrance of the park. We could easily envision the travels of those early visitors to this beautiful hunting lodge with its giant fireplace & the rooms surrounding the lobby. Stopping at McDonald Lodge also gave me an opportunity to snap a picture of the Red Bus which we had taken on our tour the day before. They are so pretty & all well maintained & loved by their drivers.
After a quick stop back at the camp to check on Bennie we headed to a “nearby” by town 15 miles away to load up on supplies as we prepare to head into Canada today. It’s amazing how much flexibility a car can give you! We’re not sure what our cell phone capabilities are going to be for the next week & a half as we travel through Canada but hopefully we’ll have internet at some points along the way.
