A big hike

One of the glaciers we saw on this hike
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Today, we went on a big hike. We left the inn around 7 and were on the trail by 9. We hiked from Siyeh Bend to Sunrift Gorge. It was 10.5 miles long, starting at an elevation of about 5850 feet, going up to a pass at 8047 feet, and then descending back to 4790 feet.

It was a glorious hike. We went through several completely different ecosystems. The beginning of the hike was through a dense forest. As elsewhere in the park, the wildflowers were varied and plentiful. There were flowers for every color in the rainbow, and they grew especially thick in the sunny patches of meadows. On the way up, we saw the Mount Siyeh glacier.

Brad and a glacier
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Gradually, we climbed into a hotter drier area. Eventually, we climbed above the treeline. At the summit, we stopped for lunch. There were large patches of snow around us, though the temperature was over 80 degrees.

Coming down, we rounded the Going-to-the-Sun Mountain and passed the glacier at its top. It was huge. Large snow fields surrounding it were gushing melt water, which formed huge waterfalls coming down the steep sides of the 9642 foot mountain.

After the hot temperatures and lack of shade at the summit, we were happy to hike down into cooler shady areas going back. By the time we got to the bottom, we were tired and happy to be getting on the shuttle bus back (and happy not to have seen any bears; apparently, they’re pretty prevalent; some trails were even closed due to grizzly activity). We were on the shuttle by 4:30 and back to the inn by 7:30, which was a nice change from the late night we had last night.

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We ate at the inn. I had pesto trout, which was fantastic, and Brad had a steak with morel mushrooms. After that, we went upstairs, planning to read, but we fell asleep as soon as we got to our room.