On Saturday, we left Libby and drove to Glacier National Park. We booked a cottage for the first night, hoping to get a first-come, first-serve site at the campground the following morning. We quickly went by the campground to ask the ranger about our chances of getting a spot. We told him we planned to arrive at 5 am to be the first people in line. He laughed at us and said that was ridiculous. We should be there at 7 am, and he would personally make sure we get a site.
We did a short 1.5-hour hike to Hidden Lake Lookout in the evening. There were lots of mountain goats at the top. Last time at Glacier National Park, we only saw a few mountain goats far away, so we thought they were very shy. However, this time, they were hanging out right next to the path.
The following morning, we got up early and went to the campground at 7 am. We were fourth in line and immediately got a spot! We returned to our cottage and slept until we had to check out. We went swimming in Saint Mary Lake, which was ice cold. We spent the rest of the day being lazy: Reading, sleeping, and playing games. We wanted to buy new cards to play Rummy but accidentally bought Pinochle cards. We tried to play it based on the instructions in the box but didn’t get it. Later, after sunset, we went driving and took some car light pictures.
We got up at 6 am on Monday and hiked the 4-hour Siyeh Pass Trail. It was beautiful, and we only met one person on our way up, who offered to take a picture of us. We were glad we started the hike early because it got very hot later in the morning. A woman in our shuttle bus fainted because of the heat.
The next day, we hung out at the campground. In the afternoon, we drove the Going-to-the-Sun Road and hiked to Avalanche Lake. Instead of a shower, we went swimming in Lake McDonald, which seemed much less freezing than Saint Mary Lake. On our way back, we saw several animals close to the road.
On our last day at Glacier National Park, we got up again at 6 am to get a parking spot at Logan Pass. We hiked the very popular Highline Trail, which took 5 hours, including the detour to Grinnell Glacier Overlook.
This morning, we left Glacier National Park and drove back over the border to Canada. We are at a weird hotel in Val Marie and will visit Grasslands National Park later today. Tomorrow we will continue east. We will spend two nights on the road, and then we have an Airbnb near Minneapolis, so Vinz can work on Monday.