Day 6: Hike to Virginia Falls (appropriate!), and getting ready for our 3-day Sperry Chalet Trip!

Today is our last day at our current RV Park. We need to batton-down the hatches tonight (get it ready to drive again), do laundry, and pack for our 3-Day trek to Sperry Chalet. More on the history of that later. 

Regardless of all the 'work' we had to do today, we decided to hike to Virginia Falls. This was also a Glacier Guide trip. It turns out that RV's larger than 24 feet cannot drive on the Going To The Sun Road GTTSR), and although our moped is sweet for trips that aren't too long, the GTTSR is long and curvy and not great for the moped. So we hired Glacier Guides for the drive to the trailheads that are mostly off of the GTTSR. We get the great info from the great guides and the camaraderie of other hikers as a bonus! 

This first set of pictures are from this drive to the trailhead that was about 35 miles and took almost 2 hours.  Glacier became a national park in 1910 and the road was built from 1921-1933. Only 10 lives were lost during its construction. It took 1 stick of dynamite to blast a cubic yard of granite to carve out the roadway. Yikes. You can get a real sense of the majesty. 








 


The Virginia Falls trail was in the area that was burned badly by a forest fire in 2015. With the East Side of Glacier closed due to Covid, this is one of the furthest east hikes open now. From it, are some of the only assessable views of St. Mary's Lake this year. You will notice the charred trees and the new growth making headway. It takes between 15-20 years for the pines to grown back to their pre-fire height. It was beautiful in a way we had not seen here before. The lake you see through the trees is St. Mary's Lake. 





 
Wildflowers thrive in this environment, and although bears do too, we only saw a moose from a very long distance foraging in St. Mary's Lake and a deer chomping away! 







And then there were beautiful waterfalls ........











leading up to the main event at Virginia Falls! 








The hike leader, Liz was terrific, as was our group. We celebrated a 60th bday (wanted to be nowhere other than outside in a beautiful setting)! 


Tomorrow, we pack out for three days. Sperry Lodge, along with Granite Park Chalet, were originally two of several back-country chalets built to be a draw for 'easterners' in the early years of the park. Only these two remain. Sperry burned down three years ago and just completed its rebuild. There is no electricity, or running water. There are beds and food that comes up on pack animals. We are going up on horseback, to get the experience of the early guests, and then spending two nights, with hiking out of Sperry the days following. On the last day we hike out, carrying everything we used while there!  Now THAT is an exercise in efficient packing. 

So we will 'see' you all soon!  I leave you with this image of Rick Glad, my favorite hiking buddy!!! ❤️


Comments

  1. Annie and GaryAugust 19, 2020 at 9:39 PM

    These images just fabulous! Well worth the drive in to the trailhead!

    ReplyDelete
  2. GailAugust 20, 2020 at 9:29 PM

    Fantastic views
    An adventure of a lifetime

    ReplyDelete

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