Story:
Saturday - Breakfast with Rachel & Jon then the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park. After a wonderful breakfast with Rachel and Jon at the same place we went to with Kenny Emily and I hit the road towards Glacier National Park. This time we only had an afternoon to spend in the park so we went by the short trails Kenny and I had gone on. I wanted to finally hike the famous Highline Trail in Glacier so we were really rushing to get to the trailhead in time to finish the one way 12 mile hike in time for the park bus to pick us up and bring us back to Nina at 7pm. We left at 3:30 and had one of the best hikes of my entire life seeing wild mountain goats the entire way on the trail. We walked by beautiful cascading waterfalls and over snow covered passes while 1,000 feet above the Going to the Sun Highway below. The first part of the hike was along a cliff with a cable bolted to the rock for safety. On the shoulder of Haystack Butte on the trail we came across a whole herd of big horn sheep crossing the trail all around us.
Further down the trail we realized that we were getting low on time and were still a good distance from the Granite Park Chalet marking the end of our trip on the Highline Trail and the start of the descent back down to the park road where we would be picked up. We take time to chat with a very curious Marmot on the trail before continuing on though. There were mountain goats and sheep everywhere around us. At one turn in the trail we saw one resting on what looked to us to be a sheer cliff. I told Emily to run down and stand on the trail above it to give perspective as to where this goat actually was perched. We got a ton of absolutely beautiful photos which you must check out by clicking this sentence. When we got to the Chalet we had about 45 minutes
before the Shuttle pickup at 6:50pm on the road below... and then we saw the sign.. 4 miles!!! I thought it was going to be 2 at the most... This of course meant we might be stuck and have to hitch hike! So, we decided to run down the trail to the road. With a backpack on I got worn out doing this and by the time we reached the road Emily and I were both exhausted. I had planned to get to the road by 7pm but the only sign noting the shuttle was at the Chalet and it said 6:50 instead... But, we both did make it by 7pm and thankfully the shuttle was late and we were able to catch a ride back up to Nina at about 7:15pm. When we got back up to Logan Pass there were deer all over the parking lot and we had plenty of time to drive down to St. Mary's lake to watch a beautiful sunset over the mountains. Emily's feet were really sore and my legs were exhausted so we decided to drive out of the park and try to find a motel to stay in . Everything was filled up for the weekend so it took us nearly till midnight to find a place to crash. It was an exhausting day but the beauty of what we saw was worth it and after a shower in the motel we both felt a lot better and ready for the last day drive to Corvallis.
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