Day 17- June 9- Avalanche Creek

We are always excited to get up and leave in the morning when we have stayed in a Walmart parking lot. The drive from Missoula to glacier was absolutely beautiful along the shores of Flathead Lake

For those of you that have never been, glacier has multiple entrances, but two main entrances – one on the east side and one on the west side. If you have a large camper like we do or are longer than 21 feet from front to back including your trailer – then you cannot go directly from the west side to the East side over the going to the sun road. We were going to spend a few days on the West side before we head to my great uncles for a family reunion

By the time we arrived, Logan desperately needed a nap – so Hunter and I rode our bikes down to the visitor center. On our way down – we cross pass with a mule buck deer. Mule deer have huge, huge ears. This was a tricky bike ride because it was uphill halfway both directions.

We decided to hike avalanche Lake – which is one that we have done before. It is 5 miles round-trip and we were able to start at around 2 PM.

On our way out to avalanche Lake, Logan and I turn the corner and we're staring this buck deer right in the face. He crossed over the path and stood around for a few pictures before he disappeared.

In this picture below, you can see him off of my back right shoulder.

On our hike out to Avalanche Lake, we noticed how much fuller Avalanche Creek actually was. Upon arrival at Avalanche Lake, we noticed how much larger all of those waterfalls were in the back of the picture. They have had record snowfall up here so as the snow melts – the rivers, creeks, and waterfalls are very full.

Hunter took the picture below –

There was some hustle and bustle of people on the shores of Avalanche Lake – which usually means wildlife. We looked across the lake and were able to see the grizzly below. We watched her walk around the lake for about 10 to 15 minutes. Luckily, she was on the other side of the lake. Another guest told us that she had a cub with her, but we were unable to see the cub.

At almost all of the trail heads in Glacier, there is a sign mentioning that this is Bear Country.  We were so excited that we were able to see a grizzly on our hike.

Going to the Sun Road is closed at Avalanche Creek because they have not been able to clear the entire road yet.  They have had record snow there and it has taken quite a while to clear the road.  

While our weather was not as amazing as it was the last time we were here (we were here a month later), we were able to have some great views of Lake McDonald.

After we got back to our campsite, we played some games of Catan and Kan Jam.  If you are a family who tailgates and/or camps with a minimum of 4 people, we HIGHLY recommend this game and have played it almost every night.