We had booked a Many Glacier Boat tour in the morning in the Many Glacier area, therefore we can use it as the car permit to enter this area. It was a 9am tour, so we had to get up early and drove a little more than half hours to the Mary Glacier Hotel with the boat tour starting behind the hotel. The surprising part to us was that we had to drive on dirt road with a lot of holes after we drove pass the park entrance.
The Many Glacier Hotel is a beautiful hotel right on the Lake Swiftcurrent. It was a 45 minutes boat ride on the Chief Two Guns tour boat across Lake Swiftcurrent, to the head of the lake, we disembarked and walked 1.2 mile for about 15 minutes to the shores of Lake Josephine. Then we boarded the Morning Eagle cruise boat and cruised to the head of the Lake Josephine, disembarked and started to hike on our own.
Originally we planed to hike the Grinnell Glacier Trail, then we learned that it is a difficult hike straight uphill for 5+ hours and a 7.6 miles roundtrip with 1600 foot elevation gain. The option was to hike to Grinnell Lake Trail which is a 6.9 total (out and back) moderate hike. The boat rides shorten the hike distance significantly (about 5 miles). After we disembarked the Morning Eagle, we only had about 1 mile hike to the Grinnell Lake. Of course, we chose the Grinnell Lake Trail. We finally got to the lake and to our surprise that it is a beautiful lake with not too many visitors. We were able to walk around the lake to find a wonderful and peaceful spot for our lunch. We stayed there and enjoyed the turquoise-colored water and surrounding mountains for quite a long time. This turquoise coloration is due to the finely ground-up rock particles suspended in the water known as "glacial flour”. The glacial flour isn't itself turquoise-colored, it's actually grey. But when the blue sky reflects off these tiny particles in the water, it makes the water appear turquoise-colored.
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On our way back, we ran into the Hidden Falls trail junction. Since it is only 2.1 mile round trip, we got on it and saw a beautiful falls.
When we got back to Lake Josephine waiting for our boat ride back, we decided to hike a little bit on the Grinnell Glacier Trail, At the beginning, it was an easy boardwalk to the other side of the lake. On the way we were able to view the Grinnell Glacier in distance. After we started the uphill hike of the trail, it was difficult. Therefore, we just hiked for about 200 ft and then turned around.
After boat rides, we got back to Many Glacier Hotel. Since we were not planning to do any other hike, we just browsed around the hotel to enjoy the beauty of this old classic hotel. The last thing we did for the day was to go to the nearby Range Station to get my NP stamps.
When we asked the ranger regarding what to do in the nearby area, she told us that we could go to the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn and there is a short hiking trail at the end of the parking area. If we hike little bit we might be able to see moose there. That interested us and we did. There were a couple of moose in the nearby lake, and we stayed there along with a lot of other tourists to watch these moose in action in the water. On our way back, we saw more, a mother moose with her baby moose.
It was an enjoyable day with beautiful hiking and some animals. After we got back to St Mary Village, we decided to try the hackberry ice cream. Then we just got some cup ramen from the market and ate them in the room.
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