Glacier National Park - Day 2

Sep 4th, 2010
Hike to Grinnell Glacier
It was a Saturday. The weather forecast for Sunday said "Cloudy with a 70% chance of precipitation". So we had to do our 9-mile hike to the glacier today. The hike starts from the boat dock behind Many Glacier Hotel.

The Many Glacier Hotel : The Hotel itself is beautiful. A National historic landmark, this swiss-style hotel is the largest in the park. The tall picture windows look out at Swiftcurrent Lake and is one of the liveliest places to spend evenings, while in the park. They have an amazing photo gallery in the corridor connecting the lobby with the Ptarmigan dining room with pictures of the glaciers over 100 years. This is a must-see and is one of those places that has you discussing climate change to great detail.

Boat Ride#1: This short ride of just about 10 mins takes you across swiftcurrent lake. You leave the Many Glacier hotel behind you and ahead , is some breathtaking scenery to be soaked up.
Boat Ride #2: After a short 1/4mile hike between the docks, another boat takes you across the josephine lake to the trail head to the Grinnell Glacier. The entire boat ride can be avoided altogether, and one could just hike along the lakes to get to the trail head. It only adds abotu 2 miles and takes around the same time. But the Ranger-led hikes begin on the boat and i highly recommend taking one of these.

Ranger led hike to Grinnel Glacier:
So why are these ranger led hikes better?

1. They are very informative - especially when so many glaciers are melting away ( there are only 26 remaining of the 150), it helps you appreciate the geology better even if there isn't as much ice as you would have expected

2. I was initally apprehensive about the pace - thought it might be slow and drawn out. But it was not bad at all. We did make a few "information stops" - but overall the pace was decent.

3. You meet a lot of different people in the group

4. In case of a Grizzly enounter - you wont be alone ( Yes, this IS prime G-Habitat, and there are signs for it all over the place.)

Our Ranger was Rick Mulligan. Sunil addressed him as "Agent Rick" - it was hilarious. That was a marathon session of "24" talking.

This picture of  "Agent Rick" was taken while he explaining to us how the layers of rock folded over at the continental divide and that beautiful formation behind him came to be. Guess what it was called - "The Grinnel Formation". There is also a reason why i remember most of the nuggest of info he gave us - and i'll shortly explain why.

On the Boat:

From the boat across Josephine lake ( the second one), we could see "Mt Gould" ( the highest peak in the picture), and "Angels Wing" ( the one in front of it). Grinnell glacier was nestled between the two. the Other patch of ice to the right , in the shape of a lizard was called the "Salamander Glacier" - Even till as late as 1930 - Grinnell and Salamander were connected and Grinnell was visible from the boat. It wasn't anymore. By 2020, Salamander is expected to disappear.


The Grinnel Glacier Hike:

The hike starts off with about  a 1/4 of a mile around the lake and over a footbridge. As soon as we hit the foothill, there was a bunch of switchbacks. Within 30 mins, we felt like we were half way up the hill. Incicentally, there was a Grizzly encounter in this stretch a few days back. It was fueling up by a stream that went across the trail, intercepting a group of hikers. So Rick had us talking loudly and clapping hands - making loud "human sounds" to avoid "surprising a bear" - which apparently is the worst thing to do. Few more things to note - Never look directly at it (eye contact is a bad thing) and never show it your back. Here is a picture of lake Josephine and the footbridge after the first set of switchbacks.

The "Each one Teach" Shuffle Game:
We continued out hike after this point in a single file aling the cliff - it was not very wide. "Agent Rick" had to make sure none of the hikers in his group of 36 was left behind , so he had us play the "Each one Teach" game. Rick was right in the beginning leading the hike. When he came across a spot that had a story he would tell it to the person right behind the group, have him memorize it, stay put and share it with everyone in the group will the last person walked by. This now put him right at the end of the group. Rick had a LOT of information to give and there was considerable churn. Here is a picture of Kash telling us about a "White Bark Pine" and how it's seeds are great bear fare.

View of Grinnell Lake:
In a short while, in sight is a lake. It's the purest turquoise i have seen! Better than any in a tube! It's murky, but pure. It's surrounded by pine trees, is nice and serene and you can see the wind-ripples on its surface. This is the Lower Grinnell Lake. The murkiness comes from "Glacial Flour" - from the erosion of limestone by the glacier when it melted.

View of Grinnell Glacier & Falls
Soon we had reached a point where the lake moved behind us rather than ahead and the rock face with Grinnell Falls cascading down drew closer. Rigth above , in the panorama was Mt.Gould, Angel wing and glimpses of Grinnell Glacier peeking through. On the slopes of the hill nearby, were bright wildflowers. It was one of the prettiest spots on the Hike. Agent Rick said he would get married here!

We would also see a group of mountain goats crossing a stream of water. They were far far away. Thank god for good lenses! It's amazing how they balance on these rugged slopes. Something about holow vacuum pockets under their hooves.

False Ending:
Soon we reached a picnic spot. It was well after noon at this point and time for lunch. They have pit toilets here and some nice benches. We had to be quite careful while eating - there were a whole lot of fearless columbian ground squirrels trying to get a share of our lunch. Also close by was a colony of marmots. They are pretty good posers.

At this spot , there is a signage reading "Grinnell Glacier" and the picnic benches with a view give the illusion of a false ending. But the hike goes on for a 1/4 mile more. The last part is pretty strenuous and rocky. It's a bunch of switchbacks that actually gets you to a spot where you can see the glacier up close and get a better view of upper grinnell lake.

Grinnell Glacier & Upper Grinnell Lake:
When you actually reach the top of the hike, you will know.

Earlier in the century this whole part was under ice. There was no Lake and the ice was all the way upto the path pf ice you see on the right of these pics ( Salamander Glacier) At this point - it was only 100ft at its thickest and the lake is 300-400 ft deep. It was gray-ish blue, murkier than the lower lake. This was because of the higher concentration of glacial flour.

We then hikes over some of these glacial rocks to a spot where some prehistoric algae had been washed away by the glacier, rendering the rocks with circular patterns on the surface. From this spot we also had great views of the Grinnell Valley - the rounded valley floor was clear indication of glacial gradation. By 2030, this hike will just offer this view of where the glacier once was and the lake that it would have transformed to.

The Way Back:
Our way back down was much faster and we did spot some big horn sheep grazing.

Soon we would see lake Josephine again and then the boat approaching to pick up up.

It was about 4:10 when we got back on board, hiked our way back between the docks and then headed back to Many Glacier Hotel where were spent a great evening of Huckleberry icecream, Sunset-by-the-lake, Food&Drink and lots of Fun! What a Great day it was!!!!