Glacier Day 3 - July 8th

It was hot the entire time we were in Glacier. In the 90's hot, which is really hot when you are hiking a lot during the day. We decided we didn't want to do a really long hike because we had been on the trail a long time the previous day. We decided to start out the day by hiking to Avalanche lake. This is a very family friendly hike. 4-5 miles round trip and you hike to a lake that you can swim in. It is cold but definitely swim-able.

 I really needed to pee so I had to swim. It was REAL cold going in up to my shoulders but I did it.

 The water really is this color. So beautiful!

 I would recommend this hike to anyone that goes to Glacier. I liked it that much. It is a very popular hike so there were lots of others on the trail. That is good because that means less chance of bears.

After this little hike I convinced Hannah to do one other hike to see some waterfalls. St Mary waterfall and Virginia falls. It was a little drive to get there so we got to rest a little before we started hiking again. We went through the famous pinterest tunnel.

This hike was 3.6 miles roundtrip. Not too strenuous but more up on the way there and more down on the way back. Most people with kids stopped at St. Mary Falls but I would recommend pushing on. Virginia Falls was awesome!!!!

There was a fire previously and it realy was kind of beutiful still.

The water is so blue in Glacier. This is looking downstream from St. Mary's falls.

 There were also some other small waterfalls on the way.

Virginia Falls was amazing. So worth the hike!

Another thing I read was that after a fire the ground will then produce some of the best wildflowers. This was so true. The flowers on this hike were great.

After hiking we went to St. Mary's and set up our camp for the night. The campground was in a beautiful valley surrounded by so many mountains.

That evening we went back into Glacier hoping to find a spot to hang our hammocks but we found something even better . . . . . . . .

We saw our first grizzly bear. It was a cub and a mom grazing in an open field. They were pretty far away but luckily Hannah's uncle let us bring his binoculars on the trip. It was so cool to watch them. This was a dream for me, see a grizzly in the wild. It was very exciting, except that we really weren't too far from our campsite.