Out West Adventure: Part 2--Day 3 at West Glacier

Tue. June 25: We got up at 7:30 in order to eat yogurt and a muffin for breakfast, have the camper all ready to close, and then drive half an hour to do the Pyramid Lake hike with a Ranger named Mark. A former middle school Science Teacher, he was very animated and knowledgeable which made it a wonderful hike. We learned about mosses and the rocks of the area, and how avalanches along the steep slope can create enough wind to blow down trees on the opposite slope, and so much more. It was cloudy and damp but not really raining and the sun even poked through a few times so we were glad we had deferred a day to take the hike. Along the way we were passed by people coming back from the lake that had seen a bear but we never saw it. The trail goes 2½ miles up in elevation about 500 feet following Pyramid Creek to the beautiful lake, which was another classic subalpine glacial lake in a cirque, like Cutthroat was in North Cascades. But Pyramid Lake was bigger and was surrounded on two sides by steep slopes to snowy peaks with numerous waterfalls coming off hanging valleys high above. It was breathtakingly beautiful so we lingered a few minutes on the lakeshore. But we needed to get back and leave our campsite by noon so we hiked back down and returned to the campground around 1:30. We quickly closed up the camper and ate our picnic at our site before leaving Apgar Campground to drive US2 around the south edge of Glacier National Park to Two Medicine Lake, one of the east Glacier campgrounds. Janice and Lou Oien had sent us pictures of their beautiful campsite there two years ago so we decided to make it our base while we explore the east side of Glacier. There was a stark difference in the two sides as soon as we crossed the Continental Divide through a pass that was only just over 5000 feet. The lush hemlock-cedar forest gave way to rolling, open hills that ran into steep, rocky barren peaks. We found a nice campsite across the road from tiny Pray Lake, which is between Lower and Middle Two Medicine Lakes. After setting up we walked up to register the site, get our Passport stamp and get some information about the east side. Just as we were about to settle in our chairs down on the lake’s edge, the sky, that had been partly cloudy, clouded over and it began to rain. So I made chili and we did things inside while it cooked and Marv made corn bread “pancakes” to eat with it. Luckily, the rain stopped enough that a Ranger could do her program about The Magnificent Moose in the amphitheater. But it was very windy and in the low fifties so when we returned to the camper we ran the furnace a few times during the evening. It should be a very snuggly night!

Telescopic view of  snowmelt cascade rushing to join Pyramid Creek

Ranger led hike

Pyramid Lake

The two of us at Pyramid Lake

Lunch just before we left our wonderful Apgar campsite