Grinell Lake Hike, Glacier National Park, MT

 Grinell Lake

Trail Description:

Mileage: 8 miles round trip without taking the boat

Elevation Gain/Loss: 220 ft

Trailhead: Many Glacier Hotel or Grinell Lake/Grinell Glacier trailhead @ Swiftcurrent campground

something was wrong with how I wore my rain pants, can you tell? :) - we hiked here with on and off rain

Initially, we planned to hike Grinell Glacier, however, we were advised that about a mile to Grinell Glacier was still closed due to heavy snow accumulation, and considering the steepness and iciness, the trail was closed for hikers. The park ranger recommended us Grinell Lake instead. Though he mentioned the trail also just opened not because of ice but because of consistent bear sightings. 

Grizzly Bear @ Glacier National Park ( taken with a zoom or telephoto lens)

He said the trail is still actually not really free from bears yet, but they opened it already because for the past 3 days, there was no longer threatening grizzly bear activities. He mentioned we may still likely see bears. He gave us a little bit bear safety lesson like not staying too far away from a group of people, or if it were just the two of us, we should keep on making noise like calling out loud and clapping hands loudly at regular intervals to make our presence known to the bear so they can safely move out of the way. The bears usually do not attack people if they were not surprised, they usually move away from people if they hear them from a distance. That is the importance of making noise while hiking. Keeping your silence in this kind of trail is not encouraged because you want your presence be known to the bear so that they can move away before you get a chance to bump into them. He said bear bells usually do not work as efficiently as human noise in making the bears distance away. It is also important to keep distance with the bear if in case we see them, once you see the bear, it is not the time to talk anymore. Calling out loud and clapping should be before seeing the bear. He also told us to avoid running because trail running is not recommended in trails with possibility of encountering a bear because of the high risk of shocking a bear when running. For more information on bear safety, please visit Glacier National Park's page on bears.

don't worry, we were not this close to the grizzly, this was taken with a zoom lens

Though a little bit scared with the bear warnings in the trail, we decided to take the hike as long as we follow the instructions. :) We did see grizzly bear while hiking, but the bear was too far from us across Josephine Lake on the Grinell Glacier trail, while we were on the Grinell Lake Trail. 

 Josephine Lake ( we were on this side of the lake, while the three bears were across the lake and up the slopes, photo of bears below )

can you spot the three grizzlies here?

We were thankful that those grizzly bears were not on our trail but at the closed trail instead to Grinell Glacier. The two closer shots of grizzlies above were actually taken from inside our car when we were driving out from Many Glacier area. At that time, we understood why a few days ago, the trail was closed for 2 weeks because of heavy grizzly bear activities. Thankfully, our hike was safe and did not encounter bears up close. What added confidence to our hike was the presence of park rangers patrolling the area for bears because they just opened up the trail. 

What are the features in Grinell Lake hike? We hiked 8 miles since we did not take the boat ( the boat will cut the hike to only 3 miles, but it is not free ). What is great without taking the boat is that the hike meandered on 2 lakes: Swiftcurrent Lake and Josephine Lake before reaching Grinell Lake, with a lot of bear grass and other wildflowers.

Bear Grass lining the trail to Grinell Lake ( we would have missed this scenery if we took the boat to cut the hike by 5 miles)

Anyway, let me describe the features of the hike through more pictures below:

we also would have missed these wildlfowers (top and bottom) lining the trail had we cut short our hike by taking the boat

 there were several stream crossing in the hike

stream from melting snow ( thus the blueness in color)

 Josephine Lake

♥♥