{"id":2657,"date":"2014-07-09T23:44:38","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T04:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=2657"},"modified":"2014-07-09T23:44:38","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T04:44:38","slug":"big-sky-vacation-day-5-what-a-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=2657","title":{"rendered":"Big Sky Vacation Day 5: What a hike!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is our second day in the park.\u00a0 We started off the day with breakfast.\u00a0 I fixed sausage gravy and biscuits.\u00a0 We only had a few eggs in the house, so it was limited to the Zane and Owen.\u00a0 Zerah put together our lunch choices for the day.\u00a0 We then cleaned up the kitchen and headed out for the day.<\/p>\n

Today, we were headed to St Mary\u2019s section of the park.\u00a0 Zerah did the honors of picking out the trail we would hike.\u00a0 First, we had to get there.\u00a0 Hwy 49 out of East Glacier Park is one of my favorite roads to drive.\u00a0 It is hilly, curvy, and fun.\u00a0 I can\u2019t say it\u2019s Rich\u2019s favorite road though. I did my best to keep myself in line and not enjoy the drive too much.<\/p>\n

We got to the gate at St. Mary\u2019s and found there was road construction on that side.\u00a0 Or is that road destruction, as Rich likes to call it.\u00a0 Well, they have to fix and repair the park sometime.\u00a0 The wait times aren\u2019t usually too bad when you have to wait for the pilot car to come back to your side of the construction.\u00a0 Out in the west, they usually do big stretches and have a truck guide a long line of cars through the destruction zone.<\/p>\n

We had planned to meet Zerah and Sean at Sun Point.\u00a0 But we found that the Point was closed due to the construction.\u00a0 Okay, I guess this means that we\u2019d have to meet further down. We went on down to Sundrift Gorge and managed to find a spot to park.\u00a0 We hung out and waited for Zerah, Sean, and the boys.\u00a0 They arrived and got a spot a little closer than we did.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 The water rushes with quite the force.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It is a beautiful sight as it came frothing and spilling forward and down.\u00a0 Our cameras were snapping all the way.<\/p>\n

From here, we moved on to the parking lot at St. Mary\u2019s Falls.\u00a0 This lot was full also.\u00a0 We managed to find a spot on the road and had to walk a bit to get to the head of the trail.\u00a0 The way down was steep at this first part.\u00a0 The side trail takes you down to the main trail that goes around St. Mary\u2019s Lake and the points of interest along the way.\u00a0 The trail drops down about 250 feet in elevation as you go to the first falls.<\/p>\n

Rich and I had been here on previous visits.\u00a0 The falls are pretty spectacular and very popular.\u00a0 There were people all over the place.\u00a0 It was almost difficult to see the falls because you just couldn\u2019t see over the top of everyone\u2019s heads!<\/p>\n

We push on to Virginia Falls, which was another 250 feet in elevation gain going back up.\u00a0 The day was pretty warm and we were sweating profusely.\u00a0 Sean, Zane, and I were bringing up the rear for the group.\u00a0 Everyone else was walking way faster than I can go on the trails.\u00a0 We got to a small set of falls.\u00a0 Rich seemed to think this wasn\u2019t the top of the falls.\u00a0 So we pushed on.\u00a0 I was getting too tired to move very fast.<\/p>\n

We reached a second level and found the stream was just a trickle.\u00a0 Rich pushed on trying to find the top of the falls.\u00a0 According to the map, it was still up ahead.\u00a0 Pretty soon, even Sean and Zane were way ahead of me.\u00a0 I was thinking of turning back, but I met a lady whom I had been talking to earlier.\u00a0 She assured me that the falls were just ahead and not to be missed.\u00a0 I pushed on still.<\/p>\n

Finally, I arrived at the top.\u00a0 I met Rich and Alex as they were coming down\u00a0 I had to leverage myself up onto some rail bridges to cross the streams and get to a place in front of falls.\u00a0 It was all wet and misty since the falls were dropping water with such force.\u00a0 It was beautiful, but very slippery and wet.\u00a0 I got my pictures and headed back down.<\/p>\n

Sean and Zane left the trail to go across a bridge at the bottom.\u00a0 I felt that I needed to keep moving or might just lie down and die on the trail.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Since everyone was walking so fast, I was being left behind most of the time.\u00a0 That breaks one of the first rules of hiking, but I figured there were enough people on the trail that I wouldn\u2019t be eaten by a bear.\u00a0 So I kept working my way back to the parking area.\u00a0 I figured the others would wait for me.\u00a0 I kept waiting for Sean and Zane to catch up to me, but they never did.\u00a0 I had waited at the second spot for a while and they never came on.\u00a0 I figured I\u2019d better keep moving or I\u2019d never get back.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to be a rescue on the trail.<\/p>\n

I got almost back to St Mary\u2019s Falls, when I saw Alex come down the trail behind me.\u00a0 I yelled over to him.\u00a0 He said that everyone had stopped at the bridge below Virginia Falls and had waited for me.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see anyone other than the high school students standing on the bridge.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why Sean and Zane didn\u2019t come up behind me!<\/p>\n

I got to St Mary\u2019s Falls and found a seat.\u00a0 Pretty soon, everyone else came along the trail.\u00a0 We headed back toward the parking area.\u00a0 Rich was walking with me at this point.\u00a0 He was hot, tired, and out of water.\u00a0 At least I wasn\u2019t alone.\u00a0 Alex offered to take the keys and bring the car to the first trail up and pick us up.\u00a0 I took that offer because I didn\u2019t think I could drive either.<\/p>\n

This trail going up was easier and less of an incline that the trail we had taken on our original descent.\u00a0 But can you believe it, there was a college student taking a survey on how you felt about the park!\u00a0 I tried to fill it out, but lost interest very quickly.\u00a0 I handed it back only half completed.<\/p>\n

While standing there, we got into a discussion with a group of people who were trying to get back to their car.\u00a0 They had gone up to the road at this trail and didn\u2019t see the parking area.\u00a0 They came back down and couldn\u2019t figure out where to go.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I heard her tell the rest of the group to go down and turn right.\u00a0 I yelled back down to go left.\u00a0 She kept saying right!\u00a0 I sure hope they got out the park that night.<\/p>\n

As I left Rich behind to finish his survey, I started up the trail.\u00a0 There was a large deer standing on the trail ahead of me.\u00a0 I tried to sneak my camera out to get a picture, but it took off.\u00a0 I made it up to the top and waiting for Rich or Alex, whichever came first.\u00a0 Rich made it up before Alex got there with the car.\u00a0 I plopped inside when he did arrive.\u00a0 It felt good to sit down and rest my legs.<\/p>\n

Alex drove down to Rising Sun to find the picnic area.\u00a0 But first, I needed to find the bathroom.\u00a0 Once that was taken care of, we drove around looking for the picnic area.\u00a0 It was across the road and not where we thought it was.\u00a0 We found shade for the cars and got a table.\u00a0 The sandwiches tasted really good after that long hike.\u00a0 Everyone was exhausted.<\/p>\n

After lunch, we headed back to the house.\u00a0 I had to stop in town for Rich to get coffee and Joe needed water pretty badly.\u00a0 I looked around the gift shop.\u00a0 I found a t-shirt for Rick, but they didn\u2019t have it in his size.\u00a0 Too bad.\u00a0 Back in the car, we headed back down my favorite road.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the heat finally caught up with Joe and he had to hang his head out the window before I could get stopped.\u00a0 Poor guy.<\/p>\n

We eventually made it back.\u00a0 Joe went in to take a shower and lie down while we unpacked.\u00a0 After a hot shower to remove the dust and grime, I felt somewhat better.\u00a0 We fixed dinner and relaxed a bit.\u00a0 Rich and I headed back down to Browning for groceries.\u00a0 We had been munching through the food and need to restock again.\u00a0 Even Owen can eat.<\/p>\n

Later that night, we sat around talking about our day before everyone drifted off to bed.\u00a0 It had been a long and tiring day.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even get this blog written.\u00a0 Now, I\u2019m afraid I\u2019ll be off one more day.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, we planned to go to West Glacier to hike.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/a>
Alex and Joe walking under the road at Sundrift Gorge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Water<\/a>
Water rushing down through Sundift Gorge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking back into the narrow part of Sundrift Gorge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Stream<\/a>
Stream just after St. Mary’s Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Crossing<\/a>
Crossing the bridge just under St. Mary’s Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Alex<\/a>
Alex hanging on the edge on the wrong side of bridge at St. Mary’s Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another view of St Mary’s Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Top<\/a>
Top of St. Mary’s Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A small falls and side stream on the trail up to Virginia Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Joe<\/a>
Joe hanging out above lower Virginia Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Joe<\/a>
Joe and Alex hanging out on the overhang above lower Virginia Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Fast<\/a>
Fast moving waters from Virginia Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lower<\/a>
Lower Virginia Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another view of lower Virginia Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Middle<\/a>
Middle part and rapids of Virginia Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking down the gorge at lower Virginia Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The guys at lower Virginia Falls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Upper<\/a>
Upper Virginia Falls. It was worth the trip.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Zane<\/a>
Zane and Sean coming up from the bottom of Virginia Falls across one of the rail bridges.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"On<\/a>
On the shore of St. Mary’s Lake after our lunchtime picnic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View from the parking area down at St. Mary’s Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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This is our second day in the park.\u00a0 We started off the day with breakfast.\u00a0 I fixed sausage gravy and biscuits.\u00a0 We only had a few eggs in the house, so it was limited to the Zane and Owen.\u00a0 Zerah put together our lunch choices for the day.\u00a0 We then cleaned up the kitchen and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2657"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2683,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657\/revisions\/2683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}