Oooooh this hike was so so great, I can barely look at pictures of it without wishing I was right back there! My sister Jewel hosted a two day "Cousin Camp" for our siblings kids and as a result- John and I had this two day stretch in which we could do WHATEVER WE WANTED TO DO!!!
We basically spent that time reading and hiking.
Dreamy.
Speaking of dreamy - the Highline Trail just might be my new favorite hike.
It begins at Logan's Pass and follows above the "Going to the Sun" road (an amazingly stunning drive in and of itself, we knew the hike would be spectacular!) And it was, but not for the reasons we expected.
As you can see, the clouds were hanging low that day. It wasn't really a overall foggy day, but quite literally thick clouds that we drove up into as we approached the trail head.
It was the most Erie thing to start out along this trail and hear the traffic directly below us, but not be able to see beyond a few feet. Because we'd driven this road before, we knew the the view from this trail is usually a breathtaking site. I wasn't really disappointed though as the lack of visibility added a whole new dynamic and challenge for us.
Without being able to see far ahead of us we found ourselves constantly surprised. This hike took us past waterfalls that towered far above, through little streams flowing down the mountain side, over shale, into forest and then back out into open meadow that was filled with the most colorful array of wildflowers I've ever seen. And we never knew what to expect until we'd reached it!
At one point we came across these little marmots and their concerned Mama.
Mama Marmot was a tad bit aggressive actually and charged down those rocks right to us. I'm still not sure if she was warning us to leave her babies alone or if she was wanting my fruit and nut granola bar. Either way, I was easily intimidated and we moved along;)
We also came upon a Ram on the trail as well as a bird (a ptarmigan or a grouse perhaps?) and her chick. We also spotted a Pika running along the rocks. Love those cute little critters!!
Eventually the clouds lifted a bit, opening up a much larger world to us.
After three hours, we had reached this point. We had walked behind and just a bit past Haystack Butte and figured we were almost to the Loop that would take us back up to Logans Pass. We spoke with a couple of Hikers coming the other way though who told us that we were still had about four hours left go.
Say what?!!
How had we failed to notice that before starting out? Here we were thinking we were almost finished and we weren't even half way yet. There was nothing challenging about this hike (at least not going the mostly downhill direction we were going) We were in no way too tired to continue on.
Unfortunately, we had left our van up at the top with plans to shuttle back from the Loop and the last shuttle departure to the top was leaving in three hours. It was a huge gamble to know if we'd make it in time. We debated continuing on, with increased speed. If we ran, we could be there by 6:30. We also considered the possibility of hitchhiking our way back up to the top - but I wasn't particularly sure we could count on that as an option.
So, we instead, turned around and headed back the way we came - back up to Logan's Pass.
As always, for some strange reason, the walk home didn't take nearly as long but it gave us the chance (now that the clouds had given way) to better see where we had hiked from.
In this picture, you can see the road we followed, only the Highline trail is higher up along the side of the mountain on the left.
It was such a happy day to be out in the mountains. I can't get enough of it!
(I particularly love that John is willing to carry all the water, food and hoodies;)
It was a perfect day, one in which we traded in a spectacular view for a walk in the clouds!
