9/1 - Drive to Glacier National Park and Start Exploring

We had a long drive today and a time zone change to make it worse, so we left Beth and Norm around 7:30 am to head to Coram, Montana, just outside the west entrance to Glacier. Beth and Norm had warned us about speed traps on the way, and we saw way more highway patrols than usual, including some pretty stealthy unmarked cars. Fortunately, we managed to stay under their radar and made it to Glacier in 9 hours, about a half hour sooner than expected.

As we checked into our hotel, we asked about hikes for tomorrow and the owner was tremendously helpful with recommendations including that we should start NOW and then have more time Tuesday to explore -- they especially recommended getting an early start on the Going-to-the-Sun Road to get to the visitor's center at Logan pass before the parking lot filled up and having to spend too much time circling for a space.

The waterfall - stone is red mudstone

So instead of a leisurely dinner, we headed into the park and did a combination hike of the Trail of the Cedars and Avalanche Lake. The Trail of the Cedars is a nice flat almost 1-mile loop trail through woods lots of big cedars and similar trees. It leads to the start of the Avalanche Lake Trail which is 2 miles to the lake, but with a wonderful overlook on the gorge much closer. The falls through the gorge were impressive, and we thought maybe there would be more, better views further on, but it was not to be and we turned around before reaching the lake. It was getting to be 7:30 pm and with an overcast sky, I was a bit worried about losing the light for hiking, especially since we didn't have our flashlights with us. It really felt good to walk instead of sitting around, even with the hills we had to negotiate.

Jim at the waterfall from Avalanche Lake

 On the way back out to dinner and our hotel, we stopped along Lake McDonald for a few photos there. We can hardly wait to head back tomorrow, though it looks like the glaciers have receded dramatically from what I remember of our trips through in 1959 and 1962.

Lake McDonald before sunset

Dinner was unremarkable except that the wine choices were unimpressive and even the most expensive glass (more than dinner) was disappointing. Maybe this is what I have to look forward to in Morocco! The hotel has free wi-fi, tho the speed is a bit slow, so I am adding fewer photos than usual.