Grinell Glacier Hike in Glacier National Park: Glacier Park Photo T...

Grinell Glacier in Glacier National Park is a spectacular hike that is limited in availability to just a few months of the year. Our first year at Glacier, we were unable to do the hike as it was still closed due to snow in early July. When we went again the next year in late August, we were able to complete the hike. The photos here are from my husband's cell phone. Unfortunately, with the exception of the Big Horned Sheep, which I retrieved from my Facebook photos, all of my photos from this portion of the trip were oddly lost when we transferred files to a new computer.

The trip starts from the Many Glacier Lodge. A beautiful historic lodge located in a prime hiking area.

The easiest way to do the hike is to short cut across two lakes via the boat tour. This tour provides a good history of the area and cuts off several miles of distance.

The lower lakes are beautiful and peaceful.

Hiking begins at the end of the second lake by going over a foot bridge.

This lower area is flat and has a boardwalk through swampy areas. But it begins to climb quickly after that.

Once we started climbing, it did not take long to encounter the first Mountain Goat hanging out on the trail. This is also prime Grizzly Bear country, and hikers behind us told us that we walked right under one that was on the ledge above us. We never saw it.

goat at grinell.jpg

As the trail ascends, the multiple glacial lakes below come into view.

Near the top were a number of Big Horned Sheep. This is the one photo from my camera that I could retrieve because I posted it to Facebook before my other photos were lost.

It was a misty and cloudy day. The mountains at the top were obscured by clouds.

Nevertheless, Grinell Lake and the Glacier above it were beautiful. Seeing ice floating in late August is always amazing.

My husband did a panoramic shot with his phone. It was cold at the lake, so we did not stay long.

The hike down was sunnier, and we took a break shortly after passing this waterfall area.

On our return, we became tired of waiting for the boat and were going to have quite a crowd, so we hiked the entire way back. This took us past the boat house for winter storage of the tour boats. We also saw Moose on the way back, but unfortunately the good photos of them were on my camera and were lost.