A road hike

Glacier has over 700 miles of hiking trails and we wanted to hike a couple of them while we were up here.  We wanted to go back up to Logan's Pass and hike out to the Hidden Lake overlook, but there were a lot of cars waiting to get into the park at the entrance so we decided to take a road hike to a place less traveled:  Polebridge, Montana, and Bowman Lake.

Polebridge is located about 27 miles north of West Glacier along the western boundary of Glacier National Park and the road to get there is paved in some places and gravel in others.  The first 13 miles is a nice paved road...

that travels through where a large part of the 2003 forest fire occurred.

 

The dead trees were still standing everywhere...

 

...but the new trees were growing nicely underneath.

 

Because of the forest fire, we were able to see the mountains to our east through the dead trees.

 

We would see the occasional meadow here and there...

 

and this deer.

 

The forest fire had destroyed the trees here also...

 

but there were very few still standing among the new growth.

 

Right at the end of this paved section, we crossed the Flathead River.

The next 13 miles of road was mainly a gravel road outside the western boundary of the park.  It followed along the Flathead River and offered some beautiful views of the mountains to the east in Glacier National Park.

 

The gravel road was "rutty" like where a track-hoe or bulldozer had been over it and Chuck found that the ride was smoother by traveling faster.  You would see a house here and there.

 

It would be beautiful living out here now but I can't imagine what it is like in the winter.  I wondered too if they ever get tired of driving this rough gravel road. 

 

When we reached the turn-off for Polebridge, we were only 22 miles from the Canadian border; but this border entrance is closed so I guess we won't be going to Canada today.  A mile after the turnoff, we reached Polebridge which consists of a mercantile store (with a delicious bakery)...

 

...and a saloon (the log cabin to the left in the below picture).

 

We really had some good views of the mountains here.

 

The Polebridge Mercantile Store would have been destroyed by the forest fire had they not been able to keep it watered down and protected.

 

While in the store, I asked what the road was like going to Bowman Lake in the park and if we could make it in our CRV.  The cashier told me that it is 6 miles to Bowman Lake and that the one-lane road is rougher than what we had been on so far, but that we could make it in the car.  So we decided to continue our "road hike" a little further to Bowman Lake.

The road before going into the park (again) was wider but rougher...

 

...and continued along Flathead River.

 

But then we crossed over Flathead River...

 

...and headed back into the park beginning with this one-lane bridge crossing Bowman Creek.

 

The one-lane road was narrow and sometimes challenging when you met an approaching car (or truck carrying pack mules) but Chuck (of course) managed just fine.  Actually, this gravel road was in better shape than the two-lane gravel road we traveled outside the park.

And like everywhere else in or around Glacier, the views were beautiful.

 

The wildflowers were everywhere along the sides of the road...

 

...as was the huckleberry.

 

The first half of the 6 mile drive was open...

 

...but the last half was thickly forested and had apparently not been affected by the 2003 forest fire.

 

At the end of the road, we parked the car near the picnic area and walked a short path down to the lake and then......WOW!!!

 

It was just so incredibly peaceful...

and beautiful.

 

AMAZING!!

We walked around a little bit while I kept taking pictures...

 

and saw the "perfect" Christmas tree.

 

And then we just sat on an old log on the shore and just watched the lake and the mountains for the longest time.

We talked a little while with a ranger who was walking around and stayed at the campground.  He said that the bears were everywhere and that one had been in the campground a few nights ago.  Some people in a tent came knocking on his door in the middle of the night and said they could hear a bear behind their tent.  He told them to just go back to sleep (in their tent) and that the bear wouldn't bother them.  Really? 

What was funny was while we and some other folks were standing there talking to the ranger, Chuck happened to notice that one of the "other folks" had a Vanderbilt Commodore hat on and come to find out they were from Nashville, Tennessee, but now had a summer home in Bigfork, MT.  Here we were over 2,000 miles from home out in the middle of nowhere and we meet some folks from Nashville.  Small world, isn't it?

We sat there for a little while longer soaking up the snapshots in our minds of this incredible view before heading back.

Because of its location and difficulty getting to, not many tourists traveled to Bowman Lake, but I think that's kind of what made it so special to us.

 

After soaking up a few more mental snapshots, we headed back down the gravel road to Polebridge...

 

...and then the rest of the way home.