Snow in the Summer on Going to the Sun Road????

This morning we got to sleep in. After that, we drove Going to the Sun Road. It took me a while to figure out that it wasn’t that we were going to Sun Road but that the road was actually named “Going to the Sun Road.” This was the scenic road that goes through the middle of Glacier National Park. Lots of people say it is one of the most beautiful drives in America and I can see why. Giant, steep mountains with snow-covered tops (and middles) stretched to the sky. Evergreen trees made their journey toward the middle but couldn’t make it all the way to the top – because the mountains were so tall that they reached way past the timber line. Rivers and lakes rested in the valleys of the mountains. Waterfalls cascaded down to meet the road.

The first thing we did was drive to the Logan Pass Visitor’s Center. Logan Pass is the highest point of Going to the Sun Road. There, we did the Hidden Lake Overlook Hike. It was 1.5 miles each way. It’s considered the best short hike in Glacier National Park. My whole family (except Christian), my cousins and their whole family, and my grandparents did the hike. When we asked about the hike at the visitor’s center, the ranger said we’d have to hike through a few snow patches. Well….it turns out that those snow patches weren’t really patches. They were more like snowfields. (Is that a word?) Before we even began a hike we saw a mountain goat with her baby. The baby was sooooo adorable. "Wow!" I thought. I couldn't believe we had already seen a mountain goat. The hike started on a boardwalk. It seemed like a normal hike. My mom even commented that she could have almost brought the stroller on it. Then we reached the first "snow patch." That's where the word snowfield comes in. There was a LOT of snow and it was steep going up. We kept loosing our footing, slipping and sliding. Eventually we reached a spot where there was about three feet of boardwalk before we reached the next "snow patch."  Eventually we reached this bend. On one side, it was almost a straight drop off with no railing. On the other side, it was straight up. And we were hiking on slippery snow. My cousin decided it might be easier to climb up the ridge and then get down from there instead of hiking around the bend. I decided to follow him. We got up there only to see that both sides were now way too steep to climb down. So, we had to continue walking along it until we reached a part where we could climb down. It was a bit scary and my mom wasn't too happy about our choice.

Throughout the hike, we saw several more mountain goats. Everyone else saw some bighorn sheep in the distance but I was ahead of the group at that point and didn't see them. Eventually we reached the overlook. It was beautiful. There was a lake and a valley with sheer, steep snow-covered mountains on all sides of it. There was a ountain goat there so close that we could have reached out and touched. I think the hike at Logan Pass was one of my favorite hikes ever (and I've been on a lot of hikes).

After the hike, we continued the drive. We didn't make it all the way to the end because we were running out of time. We turned around and headed back to camp. At camp, we roasted hot dogs for dinner over a fire. It was pretty cool. Then we held our own little church service (we were too far away to drive to an actual church meeting) before roasting marshmallows. I like roasting marshmallows almost more than I like eating them.

Overall, I went to bed feeling very content with the day.

Here's me with my Aunt Laura at Logan Pass

Here's some of the snow on the path on the Hidden Lake Overlook hike

The baby mountain goat. Isn't he cute?

Here we are at the overlook at the end of the hike

We stopped and put our feet in some freezing water on the Going to the Sun road