4 Wheels 4 Girls

On June 11th, Jean’s birthday, we finally went to Glacier National Park.

We arrived there in the mid-afternoon, around two or three. Dad checked out the visitor center, and then we drove to the trailhead of the hike we would be doing, the Avalanche Lake hike. Well, before I tell you about the hike, I should probably explain exactly what a glacier is.

*Speaks in teacher voice* Well, a glacier is a mass of ice that is frozen all year long. Glaciers move just inches each year. The neat thing is that a glacier can produce massive amounts of runoff/snowmelt constantly without completely melting away. As the mountain shelves where the glaciers are slowly fill up with snow, the snow and ice overflows and moves verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slowly down the mountain. As it goes down, it grinds up the mountain with it, creating the glacial dust that makes the water in the lakes and streams a beautiful light blue-green color. So eventually the overflow reaches areas of warmer temperatures and it melts, creating streams and filling lakes with the snowmelt.

So, we left on the Avalanche Lake hike. It was fairly long, 4.6 miles, but it was beautiful. The stream we were walking next to, Avalanche Creek, was thundering down the valley, cutting through the rock walls, and roaring over huge boulders. In some places the creek was moving so fast and splashing so hard against the rocks, it looked like there water fountains shooting up from the stream. The creek was that pretty blue-green color, and it was filled with multicolored rocks. The rocks were green, purple, yellow, red, blue, pink- and they were everywhere. In the rapidly-moving stream, on the path, in the forest…

Along a relatively calm stretch of Avalanche Creek

We walked along the path, going slightly uphill for most of the way to the lake. We saw lots of cool stuff, including bear scat but unfortunately no bears. After a long uphill walk, we got to Avalanche Lake, which filled a large U-shaped shelf in the valley and was surrounded on all sides by mountain walls and waterfalls. We could see the edge of the glaciers between the surrounding mountain peaks.

Me, Dad, and incredible mountains at Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park

There was another surprise waiting for us at the Lake, but Ellie will tell you about that in another post.

We ate our bag of trail mix at the lake, and then walked back. After our hike, we left Glacier National Park and went to find a restaurant where we could celebrate Jean’s birthday. It was a beautiful park and a great day! 😀