After a very long day of traveling from North Dakota to Montana (yesterday not pictured), we woke up to a beautiful blue sky to begin our day kayaking at Lake MacDonald at Glacier National Park.
It is no surprise that Glacier is one of the crown jewels of the National Park System as its beauty already astounded us at our first destination. If you could only use one word to describe this park, it would be spectacular.
With the park systems across the nation being inundated by visitors, they implemented a park road pass this year in addition to the park visitor pass you must show. We were fortunate enough to score a Going to the Sun Road Pass before our arrival which was good for 7 days. Although the entire road wasn't open yet to drive, we had to have the Gttsr pass to get in. Ahead of our visit, I booked 2 kayaks that we rented through Glacier Outfitters in Apgar. We had the first reservation of the day and started off our 2 hour kayak adventure at 9.
What a view!
The rocks appear rainbow and are visible through the clear glacial waters of the lake.
Just stunning!
Allie and I shared a double and the others shared a double with a tandem. As the day goes on, the lake become quite windy and they said to be careful not to go in the middle but along the sides of the 10 mile long by 1 mile wide lake. At its deepest it is 472 feet.
What a beautiful morning!!! You can still see snow on the peaks of the mountain. The water was quite cold.
After a picnic, we treated ourselves to ice cream in Apgar village. The huckleberry was a hit!
Mint chocolate chip for Juliette
We thought we would take a hike around Apgar and Lake MacDonald since we had parking but it was not a very interesting one and was a bust. We packed up and drove to Avalanche Creek to do some afternoon hiking.
We did the Trail of the Cedars Nature Trail which is a loop hike. These red cedars grow to heights of 100 feet and diameters of 4-7 feet. Some of the trees in this area are estimated to be more than 500 years old!
About half way along the loop trail, there is a trail head for the Avalanche Creek and views of the lower Avalanche Gorge.
We then decided to take the 1.6 mile hike on the Avalanche Lake Trail.
All around you can see evidence of the many avalanches that have coursed through here, leaving downed trees and boulders all around.
Ferns follow along the Avalanche creek.
We were rewarded at the end of the hike to see beautiful Avalanche Lake! Dozens of waterfalls were visible on the mountains.
It was a great place to sit and relax!
After that hike, we finished the Trail of Cedars Trail that has some boardwalk on the loop.
We logged over 11 miles hiking today and our tired legs and feet could feel it! We were excited to get back to our beautiful VRBO outside of Columbia Falls.
I made dinner and we enjoyed a campfire with s'mores.
Juliette found an abundance of 4 and 5 leaf clovers!
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