USon8wheels – a travel blog

July 10-14

by Erin

It was thrilling to be here in Glacier as a family. I worked in this special place for two summers during college and have so been looking forward to being here together.

Our first couple nights in the area we stayed outside the park on the Blackfeet Reservation. We enjoyed camping in the expansive plains/foothills.

The boys enjoyed biking here. The ground squirrels contributed to the uneven ground, making for a more exciting ride.

Lev and his bouquet. Eliza was in her element arranging flowers and photographing family members with them.

Sitting around in the evening light

On our first Glacier hike in the Two Medicine Region of the park, we got to watch a bull moose eating lunch from the bottom of the pond on the way to Aster Park.

Next, we camped at St. Mary Campground. Our first full day within the park was acttually a bit disappointing because we couldn’t find a parking spot to do either of the two hikes I had in mind. It turned into a driving day, which is not nearly as satisfying as being on the trail!

Thankfully, we did have opportunity to log 30+ beautiful miles on foot before we said goodbye with tired legs that were ready for a rest.

Siyeh Pass

Siyeh Pass is one of my favorites. I considered it a shorter hike in my 20s, but today I consider it to be about the maximum of what we can manage at almost 12 miles and over 2000 feet elevation gain. We got up early and found a parking spot at the trailhead. The flowers were in bloom. I counted 52 different kinds, and I know I missed some!

So many bear grass flowers in bloom!

My favorite flowers – forget-me-nots – contrasting beautifully with the yellow flowers around them.

We hiked through open forest, alpine meadows, over countless streams, and up switchbacks across the rocky slopes spotted with colorful and low-growing plants. We enjoyed wide-open views for miles.

Here we are at the top. Matt took a side trip along the narrow ridge behind our family while the rest of us finished our lunch.

We had the treat of watching a mountain goat climb adeptly up the snow field.

Lev spends a significant amount of his hiking in frolocking/skipping/running mode.

The trail was frequently covered by snow, but here we got to follow the trail right through a crack in the snow.

We hiked through light showers for most of the second half of the hike, but the lush and vivid colors were so striking that the rain didn’t lessen the experience.

We met this mule deer buck along the way.

If you zoom in, perhaps you will see two dark spots in the meadow in the center bottom of the photo. They are grizzly bears. We know because we had binoculars. We watched the pair run across meadows into the woods that we would be next by as we continued our descent. We made plenty of noise and didn’t have any trouble. We finished the hike soaked and satisfied and sent Matt to hitchhike back to the trailhead for our van.