Montana - Day 3 Glacier NP (West Glacier to Logan Pass)

 Shawn and Karen are only 45 minutes away from West Glacier and so we thought leaving by 7:15am was plenty early. Much to our dismay, we not only had to wait in a line to get in but we also had to have our kayaks inspected before getting on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. This put us a bit behind and by the time we arrived at our scheduled first stop the "parking lot full" signs were already out. 

Rather than wasting more time trying to get a spot, we forged east with our first stop at the McDonald Creek overlook. While here we met three fellow Green Bay Packers fans, talked some football and about how all of creation speaks of the Creator... 

Thankfully the parking lot at The Loop/Heavens Peak scenic view had a few spots open. So we nabbed one and took some shots. 

While we were wandering around we "happened" to overhear that the parking at Logan Pass was already full. So we made the decision to gear up, wait for the shuttle and ride it to the pass so we could do the next hike on our list... Hidden Lake.

We had to let a couple of shuttles go by full before one came that had space for the group of us that were still waiting. Even the view from the bus was very nice. Chris was even able to grab a shot of this mountain goat from the window of the shuttle. It was easier since everyone was stopped in the road to take this same picture... LOL

We eventually made it and hit the trail, that was closed past the view point because of heavy bear activity. 

Both the trail up and the view point were spectacular!

We were high enough that we could even catch a glimpse of Grinnell Glacier in the distance...

Hidden Lake was massive! Much bigger than we expected and much to far away to get to see any of the alleged "heavy bear activity"... 

Back at the trailhead we enjoyed the mid summer wildflowers (things bloom rather late this far north in Montana) and some wildlife as well... :) 

This cute hoary marmot was just relaxing and keeping cool in the shade... 

But I'm pretty sure this ground squirrel was really hoping that some kid would feed him or leave their pack where he could get his paws on it...