Adler's Fall 2013 Northwest: Sept. 19, 2013

We didn't do anything interesting yesterday, so no blog. We did check out the visitor center but that left us disappointed. I guess we expected more. It had rained a lot the night before and it was still drizzling, so we decided to just hole up for the day. Today proved to be well worth the wait. We could see the new layer of snow on top of the mountains, and it was so fresh and crisp outside. We had donned our new can of bear spray, as we were doubting the one we had. This is no time to be doubtful! It's $50.00 worth of insurance! We hiked back to St. Mary's Falls and then to Virginia Falls and they were both wonderful. There were quite a few people on this trail, so we felt pretty good about being out. We wanted to hike to Baring Falls, and do a Virtual Cache back there, and once we hit that trail, we were alone! It was a two mile round trip, and we kept very aware of any sounds or movement along the trail. It was actually, pretty peaceful. Our total mileage of hiking today was about 5 miles. The trails again, were well groomed and very nice. We decided to go back to Many Glaciers as it was early in the afternoon, and we got our reward for doing so. We wanted to see the St. Mary's Hotel on the inside, which we didn't do the first time we went over there. It's very rustic with hand hewn logs and a lot of character! It was still flourishing with activity, but that will come to an end, as they close this coming weekend. We feel fortunate to have been able to spend some time here before the season ends. We have only done a tiny fraction of hiking that is available here. They have about 700 miles of hiking and we know we'll return to GNP to enjoy this beautiful place again. As we left Many Glaciers, we saw a mom Grizzly with three cubs and a lone Grizzly a little farther away. We leave here feeling satisfied, but yearning for more......some day!