Glacier National ParkGoing To The Sun Road is closed to though traffic,
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The most memorable thing about hiking during the very short season of 2008, was the abundance of bighorn sheep. During the 2007 hiking season I saw more than a hundred bighorn sheep in multiple locations throughout Glacier National Park. During 2008 bighorn sheep were plentiful in Many Glacier and along the Going to the Sun Road. This bighorn ram posed for me at the parking area for Hay Stack Peak on the west side of Going to the Sun Road in 2005. Even though the bighorn ram was nearly surrounded by people and I was on the other side of Going to the Sun Road, he kept his eye on my telephoto lens. On a trip to Many Glacier in mid June of 2008 there were numerous big horn sheep near the Many Glacier Hotel enjoying the green grass around the hotel. | 
Bighorn Ram © Shawn Coggins |
This guide is limited to day hikes that are a total of fifteen miles or less. I will be making extensive changes to navigation on this site during the winter, based in large part on the most frequent questions from readers of this site. The Highline Trail and the Hidden Lake Overlook Trail start at 6,600 feet. Many of these day hikes traverse mountains essentially untouched by man, bring the proper rain gear. Plan your Glacier National Park lodging well in advance. on some of the trails in Glacier Park the trail itself is the only sign of civilization, other more popular trails are often crowded with a wide variety of 'hikers'. I hiked the Hidden Lake Overlook Trail on Sunday 8/10/08, lots of people, lots of wildlife, a few wildflowers were left. Mountain goats at the Overlook but the real treat was two bands of Big Horn Rams near the visitor center. The younger band were running around in circles, across a snow field, then pairing off to butt heads. | |
Bighorn Ram The thing I find most striking about the big horn sheep, aside from the horns on the rams |
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Day Hikes in Glacier, available at the Glacier National Park Visitor Centers in West Glacier and Saint Mary, lists sixty-one hikes that you can take without a passport. The 2008 version includes information on last years free Glacier Park Shuttle, get a copy of the latest Glacier Shuttle Guide as the Glacier Shuttle has changed routes and hours of operation since it's opening last year. As long as the hike starts on the Going to the Sun Road and ends somewhere else on the Going to the Sun Road the Park Shuttle works great. It is truly a pleasure to use, but if your hike starts on the Going to the Sun Road and then ends in Many Glacier your options are much more limited. I'm in the process of adding Google™ Maps of various hikes; this provides a different perspective of Glacier National Park. When I first started hiking in Glacier National Park in 1990 I huffed and puffed my way up the Hidden Lake Overlook Trail. Nineteen years later the altitude still gets to me but it usually only takes the first hike of the season from Logan Pass to Hidden Lake Overlook to get readjusted to the altitude. I was able to hike over one hundred fifty miles in 2007 in Glacier National Park. That includes the Loop - Swiftcurrent Pass Trail that I told my youngest daughter 10 years ago that I would never be able to hike. In 2008 I hiked Cracker Lake Trail, and the Mount Brown Lookout Trail among others not quite so daunting. Bears both black and grizzly are a fact of life in Northwest Montana. I've encountered black bears on my front porch. I've even had Fish and Wildlife bang on my front door to tell me there was a grizzly bear in my yard. Until I started hiking in the Two Medicine and Many Glacier areas of Glacier National Park I had more bear encounters while hiking the Danny On Trail on Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana. Always hike with bear spray! I always hike with bear spray in my hand it doesn't do you any good in your backpack. A few years ago a study by Katherine Kendall of the Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project was done in Northwest Montana and included Glacier National Park, this DNA study of grizzly bears counted some 563 unique grizzlies. A hiking vacation in Glacier National Park is something you should prepare for, as the lowest starting point for any hike is 3,000 feet. Extra care should be taken when hiking on snow covered trails. The winter of 2008/2009 has been a heavy snow year. According to Montana Fish & Wildlife the low level snow accumulation exceeds that of the heaviest snow year on record during the winter of 1996/1997. The Logan Pass area of Glacier National Park is a great location to observe mountain goats. | |
Mountain goat on the Hidden Lake Trail Glacier National Park. Mountain goats 'Breed in November and December; usually one kid, but sometimes two on good range; billies fight head to tail, sometimes inflicting serious wounds to hindquarters and flanks' . . . Note 02
Lunar Eclipse Glacier National Park © Shawn Coggins. There was a total lunar eclipse visible in Montana on February 20th of 2008. The start of the lunar eclipse was silhouetted against Huckleberry Mountain. The trees on this ridge burned during the Roberts Fire of 2003. After the sun set over Demer's Ridge the wind started to race up the North Fork River. This photograph was taken a few feet from the edge of the snow-covered Camas Road Bridge. Luckily I live near an area that truly still has nights with dark sky. The only light in the valley was from starlight and the moon over the mountains. The moon first appeared at the ridge edge at 6:44 pm MST and was back to full moon at 10:15 pm MST. In Kalispell, Montana the moonrise was at 5:30 pm. It was later for me because I was twenty miles closer to the mountains. I added a Google Map with terrain to show the location where this lunar eclipse was photographed. It was a very cold night at the river's edge. Even by starlight it was easy to see why Montana is called Big Sky Country. At this point I'm in the process of putting together a slide show of the total eclipse. The last total eclipse that I photographed was in October of 2004. It was a lot warmer then! That year I shot the start of that eclipse on the shore of Flathead Lake near Somers, Montana and the finish from near Whitefish, Montana. Photographing the total lunar eclipse in 2004 helped me prepare for capturing the lunar eclipse during the winter 2008. One of the simple but important lessons was to have a led headlamp so that I could make adjustments to my camera settings and locate my outdoor gear.
View of the entire length of Lake McDonald taken from the Mount Brown Fire Lookout Tower.
© Shawn Coggins
Lake McDonald is the deepest lake in Glacier National Park. Tally Lake which is about thirty miles west of Lake McDonald is the deepest lake in Montana.
References:
Bighorn Sheep — Ovis canadensis. Montana Field Guide.
Note 02