This is our second day in the park.  We started off the day with breakfast.  I fixed sausage gravy and biscuits.  We only had a few eggs in the house, so it was limited to the Zane and Owen.  Zerah put together our lunch choices for the day.  We then cleaned up the kitchen and headed out for the day.

Today, we were headed to St Mary’s section of the park.  Zerah did the honors of picking out the trail we would hike.  First, we had to get there.  Hwy 49 out of East Glacier Park is one of my favorite roads to drive.  It is hilly, curvy, and fun.  I can’t say it’s Rich’s favorite road though. I did my best to keep myself in line and not enjoy the drive too much.

We got to the gate at St. Mary’s and found there was road construction on that side.  Or is that road destruction, as Rich likes to call it.  Well, they have to fix and repair the park sometime.  The wait times aren’t usually too bad when you have to wait for the pilot car to come back to your side of the construction.  Out in the west, they usually do big stretches and have a truck guide a long line of cars through the destruction zone.

We had planned to meet Zerah and Sean at Sun Point.  But we found that the Point was closed due to the construction.  Okay, I guess this means that we’d have to meet further down. We went on down to Sundrift Gorge and managed to find a spot to park.  We hung out and waited for Zerah, Sean, and the boys.  They arrived and got a spot a little closer than we did.

Sundrift Gorge is basically a narrow cut in the rock of the mountain where a large amount of water tries to force its way through.  The water rushes with quite the force.  You can walk under the road and up the side of the stream up to a vantage point where you can see the water where it enters the narrow track.  It is a beautiful sight as it came frothing and spilling forward and down.  Our cameras were snapping all the way.

From here, we moved on to the parking lot at St. Mary’s Falls.  This lot was full also.  We managed to find a spot on the road and had to walk a bit to get to the head of the trail.  The way down was steep at this first part.  The side trail takes you down to the main trail that goes around St. Mary’s Lake and the points of interest along the way.  The trail drops down about 250 feet in elevation as you go to the first falls.

Rich and I had been here on previous visits.  The falls are pretty spectacular and very popular.  There were people all over the place.  It was almost difficult to see the falls because you just couldn’t see over the top of everyone’s heads!

We push on to Virginia Falls, which was another 250 feet in elevation gain going back up.  The day was pretty warm and we were sweating profusely.  Sean, Zane, and I were bringing up the rear for the group.  Everyone else was walking way faster than I can go on the trails.  We got to a small set of falls.  Rich seemed to think this wasn’t the top of the falls.  So we pushed on.  I was getting too tired to move very fast.

We reached a second level and found the stream was just a trickle.  Rich pushed on trying to find the top of the falls.  According to the map, it was still up ahead.  Pretty soon, even Sean and Zane were way ahead of me.  I was thinking of turning back, but I met a lady whom I had been talking to earlier.  She assured me that the falls were just ahead and not to be missed.  I pushed on still.

Finally, I arrived at the top.  I met Rich and Alex as they were coming down  I had to leverage myself up onto some rail bridges to cross the streams and get to a place in front of falls.  It was all wet and misty since the falls were dropping water with such force.  It was beautiful, but very slippery and wet.  I got my pictures and headed back down.

Sean and Zane left the trail to go across a bridge at the bottom.  I felt that I needed to keep moving or might just lie down and die on the trail.  I had reached the end of strength and just needed to concentrate on getting one foot in front of the other to reach the car.

Since everyone was walking so fast, I was being left behind most of the time.  That breaks one of the first rules of hiking, but I figured there were enough people on the trail that I wouldn’t be eaten by a bear.  So I kept working my way back to the parking area.  I figured the others would wait for me.  I kept waiting for Sean and Zane to catch up to me, but they never did.  I had waited at the second spot for a while and they never came on.  I figured I’d better keep moving or I’d never get back.  I didn’t want to be a rescue on the trail.

I got almost back to St Mary’s Falls, when I saw Alex come down the trail behind me.  I yelled over to him.  He said that everyone had stopped at the bridge below Virginia Falls and had waited for me.  I didn’t see anyone other than the high school students standing on the bridge.  So that’s why Sean and Zane didn’t come up behind me!

I got to St Mary’s Falls and found a seat.  Pretty soon, everyone else came along the trail.  We headed back toward the parking area.  Rich was walking with me at this point.  He was hot, tired, and out of water.  At least I wasn’t alone.  Alex offered to take the keys and bring the car to the first trail up and pick us up.  I took that offer because I didn’t think I could drive either.

This trail going up was easier and less of an incline that the trail we had taken on our original descent.  But can you believe it, there was a college student taking a survey on how you felt about the park!  I tried to fill it out, but lost interest very quickly.  I handed it back only half completed.

While standing there, we got into a discussion with a group of people who were trying to get back to their car.  They had gone up to the road at this trail and didn’t see the parking area.  They came back down and couldn’t figure out where to go.  I explained to the girl with the map to go back down to the trail and turn left and then take the next trail going up.  I heard her tell the rest of the group to go down and turn right.  I yelled back down to go left.  She kept saying right!  I sure hope they got out the park that night.

As I left Rich behind to finish his survey, I started up the trail.  There was a large deer standing on the trail ahead of me.  I tried to sneak my camera out to get a picture, but it took off.  I made it up to the top and waiting for Rich or Alex, whichever came first.  Rich made it up before Alex got there with the car.  I plopped inside when he did arrive.  It felt good to sit down and rest my legs.

Alex drove down to Rising Sun to find the picnic area.  But first, I needed to find the bathroom.  Once that was taken care of, we drove around looking for the picnic area.  It was across the road and not where we thought it was.  We found shade for the cars and got a table.  The sandwiches tasted really good after that long hike.  Everyone was exhausted.

After lunch, we headed back to the house.  I had to stop in town for Rich to get coffee and Joe needed water pretty badly.  I looked around the gift shop.  I found a t-shirt for Rick, but they didn’t have it in his size.  Too bad.  Back in the car, we headed back down my favorite road.  Unfortunately, the heat finally caught up with Joe and he had to hang his head out the window before I could get stopped.  Poor guy.

We eventually made it back.  Joe went in to take a shower and lie down while we unpacked.  After a hot shower to remove the dust and grime, I felt somewhat better.  We fixed dinner and relaxed a bit.  Rich and I headed back down to Browning for groceries.  We had been munching through the food and need to restock again.  Even Owen can eat.

Later that night, we sat around talking about our day before everyone drifted off to bed.  It had been a long and tiring day.  I didn’t even get this blog written.  Now, I’m afraid I’ll be off one more day.

Tomorrow, we planned to go to West Glacier to hike.