Highline Trail and Granite Park Chalet (Day Four)

We did our best to get an early start and get outta the campsite since we had a 7.6 mile hike ahead of us on the Highline Trail from Logan Pass to the Granite Park Chalet. We were also a two hour shuttle ride away from the trail head. After not being able to get on the first shuttle as it was full. We settled for the second one. It was a beautiful ride on the Going-To-The-Sun Road straight up the mountain. We met some friendly people from Washington and you guessed it, more Canadians, Aye!

The shuttle was stopped multiple times up the grade due to road construction, but eventually we made it and started our trek with our backpacks on the Highline Trail. This trail was misleading, since the Chalet was only a 200 foot gain, from the start. It doesn’t tell you probably climb a good 1000 ft and go down 800. The hike was a bit difficult, but the view made up for it. It was simply amazing! We were hiking along the ridge much higher than the road goes. Stopping in the middle for lunch our view again was gorgeous.

We continued on the Highline, seeing marmot’s, Big Horn sheep, chipmunks (following us down the trail) and squirrels. Not to mention hiking through a snow patch (yes in late July). By the time we reached the Chalet, we and my ankle were “done”. We checked into room #6 and sat on the deck and took in the view of the glaciers at 6800 ft! The Chalet was pretty bare bones, outhouses out back, no showers and walls as thin as paper. I don’t mean business card stock, but copy paper. You could hear everything… However it was amazing to stay that high up on top of the world. We had a kitchen to cook in, a place to trek from without backpacks, a warm place to be and three nice hosts. Mike, Lars and Justin were college students running the Chalet for the summer and were there for 10 weeks straight. Nice guys and very helpful with whatever information you needed. They even gave a talk about the history of the chalet, bears and the surrounding trails each night.

FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY (aka Lea)

In many ways, our fourth day in Glacier was the first day of our trip. This was the day that we were abandoning our camp site, our new-found friends, the nearby store, the possibility of a restaurant, and an escape route back to California for an unfamiliar wilderness. We were backpacking 7.6 miles to the Granite Park Chalet, a rustic lodge built in 1914 and only accessible to hikers. Rising with the sun, we stuffed our sleeping bags into their small, nylon sacks; rolled up the tent; hoisted our meager, but heavy, belongings onto our backs; and bid the comforts of civilization goodbye.

Our desired entree into the woods was the Highline Trail at Logan Pass. A park employee described it as one of the most beautiful trails in the States, if not the world. We were promised views of snow-capped mountains; fields of wildflowers; and possible encounters with mountain goats, big horn sheep, and grizzly bears.

But first, we had to get there. Again we walked to the nearby bus stop, optimistic about our departure. The shuttle, which had so impressed us the day before, however, became a time-consuming disappointment. The buses that went to Logan Pass only sat eight people. A troop of Boy Scouts and a dozen other hikers preceded us in the 9 AM line. We waited. And waited.

An hour passed before we could claim our seats on a shuttle. The packs that would stick and cleave to our backs for the rest of the day sat snugly against our knees as a middle-aged couple from Eastern Washington and two Canadian women squeezed next to us. Both pairs had been to Glacier before, and described to us the nerve-wracking ride in store for us.

Going-to-the-Sun Road isn’t easy traveling for acrophobic vacationers. The narrow road, built 75 years ago, hugs the sides of the Glacier’s peaks with nothing but a short stone wall to block vehicles from the steep drop into the valley below. The vistas of the Montana Rockies distract you from dwelling on the perilous fate that might behold you if the bus driver encounters something in the road, or worse, answers his cell phone. The road climbs so high that you wonder if you’ll emerge from your car among the clouds. It is a beautiful drive – as a passenger.

Instead of soft, friendly clouds, rain and charcoal-gray thunderheads greeted us at Logan Pass. Hats on and jackets zipped, we buckled our backpacks across our waists and ventured out onto the trail.

Like the Going-to-the-Sun road, the Highline trail is a narrow cut into the sides Glacier’s mountains. Mostly soft dirt or scrapes of rock, the trail is everything it is advertised to be. Hikers experience Glacier from some of its highest elevations – about 6600 feet – and therefore are privy to the park’s most expansive views. In addition to sweeping vistas of glacier-carved valleys and ragged Rocky Mountain peaks, the trail cuts through colorful fields of alpine wildflowers and waterfall upon waterfall upon waterfall. We were even hiking through snow for a brief bit. It was a fantastic day, to say the least.

But not an easy one. Although our Hiker’s Guide – a free pamphlet the park service distributes to its guests – said the Highline trail’s elevation gain was only 200 feet, the trail was anything but flat. That’s because the 200-feet measurement was the NET altitude gain, not the total.

Without our 40 pound (plus) packs, the trail would have been long but not too challenging. We would’ve taken a few brakes, rubbed our feet a few times, and enjoyed the trail. Instead, we got grumpy. To be fair, we kept up each other’s spirits as well as we could, but it was a hard day of hiking. To top it all off, the weather couldn’t decide what to give us. One minute it was windy, cold, and drizzling, while the next it was sunny and warm. After 7.6 miles, we were both eager to see the stone facade of the chalet.