The Hawkins Family: Glacier Part 2

PART 1 located HERE. Click me!

Day 5: Our last full day at Glacier. We slept in a little this day (8 am). It was a Sunday. Man did we regret sleeping in this day! It was a weekend and we were headed to the busiest section of Glacier- Apgar/West Glacier. Only 19 miles of Going to the Sun Road was open on this end. We traveled all the way to the turn around at Avalanche Campground. We drove around in circles for 30 mins waiting for a spot to open to park. Big mistake getting to the park at 11 am to hike! After we found parking we headed out on the Trail of Cedars. This awesome trail is laced with huge cedar trees! The trail runs into the Avalanche Lake Trail. This was an awesome hike in terms of the beauty, but the amount of people on this trail took away from the excitement. It was still absolutely beautiful! I just wished we had hit this trail up before the weekend. After the Avalanche hike, we drove back down to Lake McDonald and bought boat tickets for the tour. We had an hour and a half to kill before the boat ride so we hiked John's Lake Trail. It was a nice little hike that passed John's Lake, Sacred Dancing Cascade and McDonald Falls. The water was gorgeous and we enjoyed this nice little flat hike. Even saw some deer! After the hike we headed back to the boat dock for a 1 hour tour of McDonald Lake. It was okay, not too impressive though. But it was very relaxing watching the sun go down over the mountains! We headed to Apgar to have dinner. We settled on Eddie's Cafe. It was a really neat place, with a lot of history around the place. We were starving of course! I settled on the steak and mashed potatoes, Angie had the BBQ sandwich. Both were pretty good, but the real winner was the Beat Paw pie, made with coffee!!! YUMMM!!! We did a little shopping at the gift shop and headed back towards East Glacier. We made a stop on the way back to check Goat Lick for mountain goats. It did not disappoint! We watched 2 goats as they scurried along the hill side and through the river. After the goats we were pooped and made our way back to the Circle R Motel.

I was just so fascinated with these massive cedars!

The forest floor was thick with trees!

Deer right on the trail.

Beautiful Avalanche Lake! Three waterfalls were visible because of all the rain and snow melt!

I have a bit of a tree obsession..

This forest was AWESOME!

Roots all over the rocks!

I could NOT get enough of this creek, Avalanche Gorge! It was AMAZING!

Another deer!

Not much a view of John's Lake, but here it is

More beautiful, thick forest!

Looking down the river at Sacred Dancing Cascade

McDonald Falls

Beautiful Lake McDonald from our boat ride

You can see the fire damage on the mountains from the 2017 wildfires.

Selfie from the boat tour

The views were amazing

My amazing Bear Paw Pie!

The train over Goat Lick!

Watching the goats scale the side of the cliff was awesome

Day 6: Time to head back home! We finished up our stay in East Glacier with one more yummy breakfast at Two Medicine Grill. We also stopped back by Goat Lick for one more quick viewing. It was raining and we only saw one lonely little goat, high up on the ridge sleeping. We decided to take a quit tour of Whitefish, a city just on the other side of West Glacier and right past Kalispell. It was a neat little town my cousin had told me about with quaint shops and beautiful homes. We walked on the bike path there by the river for a bit to stretch our legs and grabbed a few goodies at Central Ave Bakery. We headed for the airport and began the long flights back home and I finally climbed in bed about 12:30 that night. It was a great trip and the best hiking I have ever experienced. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to go and see the world my God created and to have special family at home to make it happen! Can't wait to see what adventures the future may hold.