Day 2 in Glacier National Park was mostly hiking. In the morning we took a hike around Swiftcurrent Lake enjoying the beautiful glacial lake. I just can't get over the beautiful color of glacial lakes...I can't get enough of it! The hike was about 2.7 miles. We didn't see any wildlife on the trail but at a part of the trail that is near a road, we saw some bighorn sheep across the road. Suddenly all the sheep were gone (we didn't even see them leave), and while looking for where they went, we saw a Mountain Lion also across the road and up the hill a ways. (Far enough away that it was safe to watch for a bit...which is to say, quite far from us) We watched the mountain lion lurking and jumping among the high rocks and woods, until we lost sight of him. I never want to see one up close but it was cool to see one in the wild!
We originally wanted to do the day long hike up to Grinnell Glacier (about 6 miles if you take the boat across), but the Lake to Glacier part of the trail was still closed both due to snow on the trail and due to a bear frequenting the trail. Because of this, we booked a boat trip to the trail head of the Grinnell trail for the afternoon. You can walk the entire way from Many Glacier Hotel, but taking a boat across Swiftcurrent Lake and then Lake Josephine takes about 5 miles off the hike and is a nice boat ride. You end up boating, then crossing land on a short hike and boarding another boat to cross Lake Josephine.
You can make a reservation at Many Glacier Boat Company before going, but they only reserve up to half the boat in advance. The other half can't be booked until up to 3 days in advance in person. We had advance tickets for 1pm and wanted to try to see if we could change to the morning boat but since we arrived just the day before our hike, they had already sold out the seats on the morning boat. Since the glacier part of the trail was closed, it ended up being fine.
Lake Josephine felt peaceful and remote, I really liked it back there.
We approached the dock and the captain noted that we should be fairly quiet disembarking because there was a bull moose that had been in the water near the dock for quite awhile. It was still there when we landed. We all started off on the trail, with still a good view of the moose through the trees for quite awhile. The trail was a moderate one... slightly rugged but the part to the lake did not have major elevation gains. We stopped at Grinnell Lake and the boys waded a bit in the frigid glacial water. The lake is beautiful and peaceful!
It did have one offshoot with a quick elevation gain to go back and see a waterfall. We took that offshoot on the way back.
We returned to the dock to wait for the next boat. The boats leave at intervals so people can pace themselves on the trails, but there is a "last boat" so if you're on an afternoon hike you need to pay attention to the time a bit. When we got to the boat the bull moose was STILL there! We took some more pictures and waited for the boat. Just as the boat was coming across the lake, a cow moose walked out of the tall grass and joined the bull. Not only that she walked up to the bull and appeared to kiss him. Everyone at the dock waiting was going nuts. The ranger with us noted she had never seen anything like that before. The boat pulled up and we loaded on, and both moose continued to hang out near us in the water. Such an amazing encounter!!
We ate all three of our meals on this day at the Ptarmigan restaurant. There is so much good hiking around Many Glacier lodge and between/after our hikes it was nice to stay in the area to relax in the hotel. We stayed the night in Many Glacier Lodge again. Day 3 would bring our drive to Yellowstone for the next part of our trip. I did wish I had more time in Glacier though, it is truly beautiful and I will definitely return so I can explore it more! Plus, I still haven't seen a Grizzly!
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