The Beginning
The day after the storm abated, we woke up to a clear morning and cheered on the sunshine. We knew the snow was waiting for us high above. Our friend Shaun had the idea of using dog poop bags to delay the onset of cold wet feet, so we clad our feet in bright orange baggies with little paw prints on them and forged on into the snow.
It feels like weeks ago that we left that trailhead. Like we packed three weeks into the past 4 days.
Piegan Pass had snow nearly the whole way up. It was already slushy and melting fast, which made the hiking slow and slippery. The wind had piled up the snow so that between bare rocks we'd have to stomp through drifts up to our thighs. The clouds and mist gathered as we hiked and the wind was intense. At the pass, the sun popped out of the clouds and the views made the effort worth it, ten times over.
Once we got over the pass and below the snow line, the crew stopped for lunch. The descent to Many Glacier was lush and waterfalls gushed over colorful rocks.
We took a side trail to Grinnell Lake, home to one of the most famous views in the Park. Years ago, you could see Grinnell Glacier jutting out above the waterfall, but the glacier has receded well behind the neighboring peak. The Salamander Glacier is still visible, slithering above the lake, but it won't be there for long. It's not clear exactly when the glaciers will be gone entirely, but you can easily see the way they're going (check out these side by side photos for some historical context: https://www.nps.gov/glac/learn/nature/glacier-repeat-photos.htm).
The fresh snow melted at an astounding (and slightly terrifying) rate. By the next day, a pass at the same elevation had no snow to speak of and we walked up without even getting our feet wet.
Shaun had been under the weather all morning and when he hadn't caught up by lunchtime, we were starting to worry. That gave us an excuse to take a long lunch at a pretty waterfall, but knowing we had many miles ahead of us, we pressed on after some time had passed without him appearing. As we reached the top of the pass with Smokebeard, four raggedy-looking mountain goats jogged down from a nearby peak. We lingered there for a long time, in awe of the mountains above us and still hoping Shaun might appear. Two huge glaciers hung on the craggy peaks across the valley and we reveled in the sunshine on the green valley floor below.
On our way down the valley, we stopped to soak our tired feet in the outflow of Elizabeth Lake and visited Dawn Mist falls. A rainbow swept across the deep canyon.
The three of us ended our day by fording the frigid Mokowanis River and we were rewarded with a beautiful campsite with a path out to a small beach on Cosley Lake. We were just starting to make dinner when Shaun appeared at camp. Hooray!
We parted ways with Shaun and Smokebeard the next morning as they headed to the border at Chief Mountain, while we forged on into Canada. Stoney Indian Pass was our biggest question mark for the trip through Glacier since we still hadn't heard of anyone going over it. We saw no one on our way up the pass as we fought through overgrown thimbleberry bushes and willows. The trail zigzagged upwards under 100-foot waterfalls, then past alpine lakes, and through soft green meadows. It might be the most beautiful place I've ever seen. At the pass, we met a couple of trail surveyors and they were the only humans we saw all day.
At the end of the day, after trudging through chest high brush for several miles, we reached Goat Haunt at the southern end of Waterton Lake, where Glacier National Park meets its Canadian cousin, Waterton Lakes National Park. Together, the two form Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park -- Goat Haunt has a pavilion honoring the Peace Park as well as a ranger station where those hiking into the US have their passports checked.
The Canadian border is a few miles further down the lake, so on our last day, we walked to the monument and celebrated. We made it to the... Start?! And what a journey it was to get there.
