Grinnell Glacier (S24: Part 12)

A surprisingly easy and beautifully stunning hike cut short by snow blocking the trail.

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After we left Yellowstone, we camped outside of Gardiner, Montana (the 32nd state I’ve visited), and drove the following day north to Glacier National Park. Only five days after my conference in Denver, we were up at 5:30 to drive to the Grinnell Glacier trailhead. We did not secure a reservation for the Many Glacier entrance, so we had to “beat the gate” before 6 am.

Getting up that early to get to the trailhead honestly sucked. However, that sunrise as we drove past Lake Sherburne? Priceless.

Allen Mountain (9,396 ft).

The Garden Wall (7,608 ft) in the u-shaped area. Without knowing it, we were headed to that area on our hike.

Altyn Peak (7,946 ft) and Mount Henkel (8,774 ft) covered in clouds. A harsh black and white edit, for sure.

Wynn Mountain (8,415 ft). You can see how quickly the light changed.

A close-up shot of Allen Mountain. As the clouds cleared, I noted the difference in the colors of the rock layers.

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As with all of the national parks, you have to arrive at your destination early. The parks are being loved to death and are always busy. Despite knowing this, when we arrived at the trailhead at 6 a.m., we were somehow surprised to get one of the last parking spots. Because the parking lot was so full, I felt a sense of foreboding that we were late or missing something. We still needed to eat breakfast and do some light packing, so I felt stressed and that we needed to hurry up.

We started the trail by walking through a forest. The morning light hadn’t broken through the trees, so it was dark and quiet. Neither of us said much for the first little bit.

Eventually, the trail opens to a bridge where you cross Swiftcurrent Creek. This is where it felt like the hike started.

Not long after, you get your first glimpse of the mountains across Josephine Lake. Because of all of the clouds in the sky from the incoming weather front, at times, it was sunny and beautiful.

Allen Mountain (9,396 ft) hidden by the clouds on the left.

The other side of Wynn Mountain (8,415 ft) hidden on the left side.

And at other times, the sun disappeared for a bit.

Waterfalls were flowing all over the mountains!

A still pond in front of a choppy Josephine Lake.

That feeling of needing to hurry ultimately was for nothing. There were not many people actually on the trail. I’m assuming that the cars belonged to backpackers as the Grinnell Glacier trail forks off to many other trails. I also realized as we were climbing, and as I saw the overlook of Grinnell Lake up ahead, that this trail was WAY easier than either Blue Lakes or Ice Lake. It is much easier to hike at 5,000 feet of elevation than 11,000 feet. In record time (for me), we were almost to the 3 mile turnaround point.

We did take some (not enough) time to stop at the overlook. I could have sat and watched those clouds roll through for some time. However, as you can imagine, there were influencers there who wanted their photo taken. Funny enough, it was not a great spot to stop and take it all in.

Mount Gould (9,554 ft, hidden in the clouds) above Angel Wing (7,430 ft - clearly an angel wing) and a very teal Grinnell Lake (4,944 ft).

L to R: Cataract Mountain (8.245 ft), Pigeon and Pollock Mountains (under the clouds).

The clouds hung behind Angel’s Wing all morning. We waited to get rained on, but the rain didn’t come in until the afternoon.

There were many beautiful wildflowers along the trail, but most of them were along Josephine Lake (lower in elevation).

Because we hiked in June, we could not hike the entire way to Grinnell Glacier. There was still too much snow on the trail. There were signs saying that you could hike past their stopping point at your own risk, but everyone on AllTrails said, DO NOT DO IT. As we reached the turnaround point, instead, we found some friendly big horned sheep waiting for us to say hello.

Ol’ Scraggs was not afraid of us as we kept walking along the trail closer to him. Of course he wasn’t fearful; look into his eyes. He’s seen some shit in his life.

I may have loudly exclaimed to this ram, “Could you BE any more Glacier right now?!”

These guys were much larger than the ones I saw in Cañon City. I gave them plenty of room, even as they kept coming closer to us. Look at that ram smirk! He knows he’s messing with us.

Adam desperately wanted to see Mount Gould, but this is as much as it peaked out of the clouds while we were there.

After our fill of watching the rams, and eating a snack, we hiked back down and decided to walk along the other side of Lake Josephine. The trail was way too muddy, so we cut our losses and walked back to the original trail. However, we did see a bit of magic while crossing the bridge.

And I did capture Altyn Peak from the end of Lake Josephine.

As we drove back to our campsite, we stopped to check out Swiftcurrent Lake and Many Glacier Hotel.

Grinnell Point with Swiftcurrent Mountain (8,440 ft) hidden behind the clouds.

We stopped at an overlook along Saddle Horse Corral so I could take a picture of Swiftcurrent Creek in front of Wynn Mountain. A party of six on horseback happened to ride right through the shot. *chef’s kiss*

Swiftcurrent Falls along Swiftcurrent Creek.

I was worried that hiking Grinnell Glacier Trail would be the prettiest part of the park. But imagine my surprise while driving Going to Sun Road over the next three days…

Cheers.

Previous links to my summer vacation newsletter, parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.