A few weeks ago I went on a road trip with a few friends. Our first big destination was Glacier National Park. We arrived in St. Mary, Montana in the late evening after driving from Bismarck, North Dakota. We got a campsite, grabbed some dinner, and went to bed early with the intention of getting up early enough to get a permit with some solid campsites for our backpacking trip starting the next day.
We succeeded in getting up early and tearing down our camp quickly, and made our way to the Two medicine ranger station a few minutes before they opened up. We were the first in line, but barely. We got into the station and I came with a few of the ideas that I had in mind for trips. I already had some knowledge of what could be available, as the park has a website showing which sites are available which nights, but i didn't know if when i looked at the site was the most up to date as possible. Fortunately, I was able to figure out a route that seemed to make sense. $60 later ($5 per person per night) and we were off!
Our first day consisted of us heading out of the Two Medicine Ranger station and ending at the Upper Park Creek campground. This wasn't easy. We ascended about 2500 feet to the summit of "Chief Lodgepole peak", and descended about 2800 feet to our campground, 11.7 miles from our start. We arrived at the campground tired and thirsty. We were also weary of what we would have to do in two days: cross two medicine pass again to get back! We had a good dinner (a friend packed some Mountain House Lasagna) and enjoyed our company around the campfire.
On the Second day, we made a decision to do a day hike to Lake Isabel, about 2.5 miles from Upper Park Creek. Our permit actually had us staying there overnight, but by not staying there, we saved ourselves for the next day, where we would have to hike to Upper Two Medicine Campground, which was already a 12 mile hike from Upper Park Creek. If we were to have gone from Lake Isabel, it would have been closer to 15 miles! Lake Isabel was a nice looking alpine lake, with good fishing according to some of the people we ran into. We went for a swim and hiked back to Upper Park Creek Campground before dinner.
On the third day, we had our big hike: back over two medicine pass and over to Upper Two Medicine Campground. We woke up early, made sure we had plenty of water, and got off to a strong start. We took several short breaks on our way up the pass, many of which included picking huckleberries. Once we got to the top of Chief Lodgepole again, we took a long break to celebrate the finish of the toughest part of our hike. We made good progress down to Twin Falls, where we took another long break. By this time, we were pretty close to our destination, Upper Two Medicine Campground.
Upper Two Medicine Camp was very scenic, and shortly after having dinner we saw two moose. This was a great place to stay, though campfires weren't allowed, so we didn't end up staying up too late.
On the Final day of our trip, we left Upper Two Medicine and made our way back to Two Medicine Campground/Ranger station. This was about 5 miles, and not too tough of terrain. When we arrived at the campground, we washed our faces, put our packs in the car, and picked up some goodies at the gift shop.
It was a great hike, totaling about 34 miles through a beautiful place. We left in need of showers, but in awe of the scenery.
We took tons of pictures during our time at Lake Louise and Moraine lake before heading south to Banff, the town. We went shopping and ate in town that night, before spending the night in a campground. Again, we woke up early, this time to go mountain biking. We didn't hit up any really crazy terrain, but we had fun making our way around town on our rented bikes. I did tear a shirt, though, so I suppose I can brag about that!
