Today started with an early wake up call – 5.30am. The car parks get full around 8am in the park, so we needed to leave the resoirt by 6.30am to ensure we could get a space. Thank god I found a coffee hut on the way (tasted like shit, as I am learning most the coffee does over here, but better than nothing).
The Hidden Lake trail is one of the most popular hikes in the park and one of Glaciers most accessible gems. The trail begins as a paved path and turns into a series of boardwalks that climb through meadows bursting with wildflowers during the summer.
The deck overlooking Hidden Lake is just under 1.4 miles up the trail with a climb of about 500ft. The overlook did not disappoint with the panoramic view of the lake and the surrounding mountains.
This is where the majority of people end the hike and turn back. But we continued along the path for another 1.5 miles and headed down to the lake.
The amount of wildlife we saw on this one hike was incredible. Mountain goats, chipmonks and marmots.
In the afternoon, we got the bus down to St Marys to hike St. Mary and Virginia Falls. The round trip is 3.6 miles and you only gain 525′ of elevation, which I was very grateful for given my feet were squished like battery hens in by hike boots and the heat was about 30c. It’s pretty much just one long waterfall for miles! As you hike along through the forest, little openings appear with so many sets of falls that I lost count. The main attraction is obviously the 2 big falls that the trail is named after, but the falls in between were really nice too.
Post hike we had a bit of difficulty getting back to the car. There was only space for one person on the bus and given the next bus wasn’t going to be for 30mins (and we had no guarantee that also wouldn’t be full), Dad grabbed the last seat. The idea was he would get the car and then drive back to St Marys to pick us up
About 5mins later however, another bus turns up. Now my Dad is more of a turtle than a hare, so Jo and I got on the bus thinking that we would get back to the car park before Dad had left, thus saving time. This was not the case!!!
An hour later, he drives back into he car park, shaking his head at Jo and I, face rather red, stress vein protruding from his forehead. Cue feeling like a naughty teenager and getting yelled at. He was not a happy man.
When we got back to the condo, we were all friends again. Jo cooked an amazing chili and we all went to bed with happy tummy’s and sore muscles.
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