Day 9: Avalanche Lake Glacier National Park

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I felt a little better and we decided to drive into the park and go for a short hike.  We stopped at the Avalanche Creek parking area.  The Trail of Cedars starts there.  It's a short handicap accessible trail and I figured since my stomach still hated me, we'd to that one.


The trail is very shaded and starts off with a really nice boardwalk.  There were many signs pointing out different species of plants and birds along the path.  The total trail is about a half mile to the Avalanche Lake trailhead and loops around for almost one mile total.




We saw Bambi and her mama walking around the brush.  They crossed under the boardwalk in front of us and stared at us for a few minutes before scampering off.  The fawn was very cute and followed really close to his mama.




When we reached the trailhead to Avalanche Lake, I asked Curtis if we could walk it.  I didn't tell him that I was a little shaky.  I figured it would pass.  So we sauntered and walked really slow...which was fine with him.  



Yes, we did carry bear spray.  We spoke to a park ranger before we left and she said there were black bears and grizzlies in the area.  But there were quite a few people hiking the trail, it would have scared the bears off.  

The trail was hilly...lots of ups and downs.  But it was a gorgeous trail to hike.  Almost as soon as we started, we came to a gorge.  The trail followed along the river and up over hills that had fallen trees.  The canopy above us was very green, but there were many fallen, dead trees along our path.  It was very shady and we enjoyed just slowly walking along, stopping to take pictures every now and then.  This is rated as one of the easier trails to hike.  And if I had felt better, we probably would have hiked it faster.  There were plenty of families with small children hiking the trail.  I felt very old since I had to keep stopping to catch my breath and keep from throwing up. 







We finally started descending and came into a clearing to a gorgeous lake that was fed by three glaciers' melting snow.  The water was a beautiful turquoise and the area looked like a bowl surrounded by mountains.  A lot of people were out in the water, wading and playing.  







We found a spot to sit and eat the PBJ and apple I brought.  I could only eat half still, so we took our time and just enjoyed the view in front of us.  We had a little friendly chipmunk come by to try to get some scraps I think.  He didn't seem afraid of the people around. 

On the hike out, I seemed to get my second wind.  We hiked out fairly quickly compared to our saunter into the lake.  It was a wonderful trail to hike.  I feel like it's a must do hike for anyone who visits Glacier National Park.  









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