Glacier In May
May 26, 2012The kids and I join my brother and his friend in Glacier for for Memorial Day weekend and experience a return to winter weather
A visit from my brother and his friend had us making a return trip to Glacier for Memorial Day weekend. In contrast to the beautiful weather from two weeks prior this weekend balanced out the weather equation. The forecast was for cold rain and snow and was dead on. Living in Missoula we have the luxury of being selective of when we make our trips to Glacier, and if it had been just us we would have bagged the trip. But with folks flying in from out-of-town we were locked in.
After a mandatory stop at Lake McDonald on the west side we drove highway 2 over the east side and took a short hike to Running Eagle Falls. This is an easy hike and great for kids. We’ve done it a number of times and we usually spend a lot of time playing by the water. Water play was out this time but it was impressive to see the falls during spring run-off. Later in the year all the water flows through a hole behind the falls and comes out in the middle.
We packed all our camping gear but with temperatures in the 30’s and rain we headed back to East Glacier to find a warm place to stay. We woke the next morning to a couple inches of heavy wet snow. Undaunted we loaded up and drove very slowly (I missed my snow tires) to the sleepy “town” of St. Mary’s at the east side of the Going-To-The-Sun road.
To their credit my brother and his friend were determined to do a big hike. The started from the Jackson Glacier Overlook and hiked the Gunsight Pass Trail to near Florence Falls where the lost the trail in avalanche debris.
With the conditions I knew the children and I needed to stay closer to the car. The Sunrift George turned out to be the perfect spot. Usually this is a very busy area but the weather had chased everyone away and we had it to ourselves. I dressed the kids in their puffy coats with a rain coat over the top and they never got cold. We climbed around and played under the bridge, went up to see the “rift” and then hiked down to Baring Falls.
On Monday the weather improved, meaning no rain, and we made our way back to west side to squeeze in one more hike before heading back to Missoula. We returned to a spot that I discovered with kids last fall. An unmarked road just after the Lake McDonald Lodge leads to a bridge that crosses McDonald Creek. From their it is a short hike through a lush forest to McDonald Falls.
Audrey and Zach found a small hill on the trail near the falls and climbed up it numerous times to run down trying to go so fast that their hats would fall off.
Overall it was a good weekend. I thoroughly enjoy visiting the same places in different seasons. This cloudy cold weekend was a brief return to winter. However, the vibrant greens of spring were ever-present. The plants almost seemed to be growing as we watched.