TODAY VISIT THE PARK!!!

I didn't bring a watch up to the loft, so when I woke up I couldn't tell the time. But I sensed it was too early to get up. A while later I heard Andrea downstairs who told me it was around two am; so I went  back to sleep.

Got up around 4 then, made some coffee and came out to sit on the deck. To wait for sunrise and for the two love birds to wake up.

While waiting I decided a selfie would be a good idea. Here it is, though it looks like the head is also growing out of the ground

Once it was light, i read one of the books I brought along on the trip. This is a series of short stories by the British writer Robert Aickman that are difficult to describe. Although the stories are fairly mundane, the characters are always a little off, and the stories take unexpected twists. But they are a joy to read, plus they are also very entertaining.

They are up now, about 6 am. Next is breakfast and preparation of food for the hike.

After breakfast we went to the park for our first hike. The ride to the park entrance, about a 1/2 hour through what looks like the park itself, was very pleasant. All wooded areas sorrounded by evergreens.

Once in the park we checked in the Apgar Visitor Center to get a pass to gain entry into any park in the US park system. We drove in the delightful Going-to-theSun, with extensive views of McDonald lake. Drove to Logan Pass Visitor Center where to our disappointment, although not totally unexpected, there was no parking spots available. We continued driving along the road for another mile or so till we found a place to park om the side of the road. I should point out that the roads had a mountain on one side and a precipice on the other. Careful not to step out or you may fall and not be heard from forever again.

We walked backto thevisitor center and decided to go down on one of the trails, an easy one that led to Hidden Lake (i don't understand why call it hidden when it's clearly marked in the map, but that's another story)

Although the trail was marked as "moderately easy" it felt quite difficult. I guess it's the lack of practice because, for the most part, the trail had an easy incline. What  made it difficult was the fact that throughout many parts, the trail was wooden boards with steps, andgoing up steps is always more difficult. 

There was a long stretch of ice on the trail where we had to walk through. A patch where we saw several people walking with flip-flops- talk about coming totally unprepared.

The hike, back and forth a total of 3 miles that seemed like 30, took us almost 2 hours (or so I think since i didn't time it). 

For lunch we drove up from Logan Visitor Center up to Many Glacier where we found a restaurant to eat, called Two Dog Flat. Food was good.

Then we went to hike in another trail, this one was the appropriately named Switf Current Nature Loop, since it loops around the Swift Current Lake. This hike was 2.6 miles and went mostly through a narrow path, with many spots either next to the  lake or with a view of it. It was pleasant though.

Afterwards on the way back to the Inn we stopped at a restaurant to have some pizza. Sat ouside on thedeck sharing thetable with two girls, friends from high school, who had come to the park om vacation of course. Thereason we shared a table is because all other tables were taken.

Drove back to the hotel. There are basically two ways to get to the hotel from the eastern entrance to the park, where we were. Once is to go through the Glacier Park  itself, a ride with gorgeous views that takes approximately two hors to cover 50 miles. The second one is to loop around the park, outside thepark itself though, more miles but it takes less time. Except for the constructiom are that we foind out after we had started driving.