Scott Chandler
Wildness is a necessity- John Muir
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2014
- Messages
- 1,099
After a while patrolling the Cloud Peak Wilderness I had six days off. A glorious chance to rest and relax and recoup! Well sorta. My family was having their annual week long trip to Glacier National Park and if I hurried I could make the tail end of it. So leaving Buffalo WY around 2 with a slight delay by construction and a cop I arrived at the timeshare around midnight thirty. Hooray for a little sleep before hitting the trail again!
My dad has hiked almost every official day hike of worth in Glacier since he worked there 29 years ago. Last year he discovered a sweet off trail hike that he was nice enough to hold off on doing again until I could be there too. So together with my younger brother and my dad's old roommate and friend from his Glacier youth we struck out for what lies on the other side of Mt Reynolds.
The mountains above Logan Pass were gorgeous as always, even with some less than optimum air quality
Hidden Lake looking nice too
From the Hidden Lake Overlook we left the "trail" behind.
Our unofficial trail led us to the saddle between Mt Reynolds and The Dragon's Tail, where we got sweet views of the other side. My dad, Kurt, and I took off for the ridge then east of Reynolds while my brother chilled at the saddle. Probably for the best since the trail did have some exposure which he's still not a fan of.
The ridge offered sweet views of valleys seldom seen between all the peaks of the Glacier skyline. Truly marvelous stuff.
So after three years I finally got to be in Glacier with my family again. It was beyond great and so refreshing to see new yet so familiar and close to the heart country. Of course, one day sounds like a pretty short trip when I had five more days off and a ten hour drive ahead of me.
Lucky for me, Glacier has a sweet last minute walk in backcountry permit system and I got to have my first backpacking experience in my favorite place on earth. To be continued...
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My dad has hiked almost every official day hike of worth in Glacier since he worked there 29 years ago. Last year he discovered a sweet off trail hike that he was nice enough to hold off on doing again until I could be there too. So together with my younger brother and my dad's old roommate and friend from his Glacier youth we struck out for what lies on the other side of Mt Reynolds.
The mountains above Logan Pass were gorgeous as always, even with some less than optimum air quality
Hidden Lake looking nice too
From the Hidden Lake Overlook we left the "trail" behind.
Our unofficial trail led us to the saddle between Mt Reynolds and The Dragon's Tail, where we got sweet views of the other side. My dad, Kurt, and I took off for the ridge then east of Reynolds while my brother chilled at the saddle. Probably for the best since the trail did have some exposure which he's still not a fan of.
The ridge offered sweet views of valleys seldom seen between all the peaks of the Glacier skyline. Truly marvelous stuff.
So after three years I finally got to be in Glacier with my family again. It was beyond great and so refreshing to see new yet so familiar and close to the heart country. Of course, one day sounds like a pretty short trip when I had five more days off and a ten hour drive ahead of me.
Lucky for me, Glacier has a sweet last minute walk in backcountry permit system and I got to have my first backpacking experience in my favorite place on earth. To be continued...
Featured image for home page:
