Today was a beautiful fall day, albeit a little chilly, and we decided to take a hike. We loaded our bikes onto the back of the car, threw shoes and packs into the back seat, and headed north.
As autumn settles in, Glacier becomes trickier to navigate due to snow in the mountains. Going-to-the-Sun Road is closed beyond Avalanche, which means all the high routes are inaccessible. It also means everyone is driving up to Avalanche, making parking nearly impossible. After circling the lot for a few loops, we drove two miles south, parked in a pullout, and climbed onto our bikes.
We biked up the road to Avalanche, secured the bikes, and started on the trail to Avalanche Lake. The trail is great: some ups and downs, shady in the forest, not too crowded. The lake didn’t disappoint.
The hike was only two and a half miles, and with the nice weather we felt like we should put some more miles on our shoes. So we hiked around the lake, taking this shot from the far side:
Coming back down, we hopped on our bikes again and pedaled along the road. It seemed like all the lakes were still today, including Lake McDonald:
Continuing south to Apgar, we found some trails around the southern part of the lake and enjoyed riding through the forest, crunching on leaves that covered the path. But the days aren’t as long as the lazy summer evenings when we can stay in Glacier until 10pm, and dusk came on. We returned to the car, loaded the bikes, and went for a great dinner in Columbia Falls.
Another great day in Glacier.