We entered the park and went to the Visitor Center to check with the ranger on road conditions and other considerations. She mentioned that the direct road from the Visitor Center to Logging Lake (Inside North Fork road) was closed after a few miles, so that removed Logging Lake as an option. She mentioned some hikes in the southern part of the park at Two Medicine which we're going to do on Friday. So, we set off to the Lake and Rocky Point hike.
After a two mile drive north, we came to a gravel parking lot at the trailhead. The trail started downhill through some typical forest scenery and a fast-moving stream.
We then proceeded down the trail and noticed some different plants (I couldn't help thinking that if our grandkids Daniel and Samantha were there with us, this would be as far as we would hike today because of the amount of flowers to pick and bugs to watch):
What was interesting about this particular area was that it endured a significant forest fire in 2003. Many of the tall trees had their bark stripped, branches burned, and missing green growth. It looked like many white-gray toothpicks pointing straight up to the sky. On the ground were many mosses and lower height plants giving new growth to the forest floor. The challenge of hiking this area was the absence of shade. It was rather warm at that time of day (11am to 2pm). We had great views of the lake and walked right on the edge of the water in a couple of places.
Here's our initial view of Lake McDonald from Rocky Point:
We had no specific destination in mind, but heard from the ranger that there was a primitive campground about three miles in. We decided to walk to this campground and turn around. That would give us a good six miles or so on the Lake trail and an overall eight mile hike over flat and easy terrain. As we headed downtrail, we could not see any trace of the campground. We only saw a handful of people at the Rocky Point area, but no one else on the trail heading inland. Since it was around noon, there was a low risk of a bear sighting, but we still had to be aware of our surroundings.
After what seemed to be about 90 minutes (and approximately four miles), we still had not seen the campground and decided to turn around. We returned the same way we came and ran into two guys backpacking to the same campground we were trying to find. They mentioned that the campground was probably another mile or two past where we turned around. Oh well.
We continued back and stopped at Rocky Point to eat lunch (We were one mile from the car). We found a nice rock outcropping and sent a postcard using the Postale app:
Glacier NP is God's Country and we're blessed to be here.
Tomorrow (Thursday), we're playing golf at our home resort of Meadow Lake. We will enjoy not leaving the condo too early and having some coffee while enjoying a relaxing morning. The birds and squirrels have little battles outside the condo which is rather entertaining.
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