Highline - Visiting Glacier in August 2022

For a few short weeks, the mountains are open.

In this bonus episode, a quick look at current conditions in Glacier, and some helpful trip planning information if you're coming to the park soon.

Vehicle Reservation Information: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/gtsrticketedentry.htm

Current Conditions & Construction: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/conditions.htm

The Glacier National Park Conservancy: https://glacier.org/

For a few short weeks, the mountains are open.

In this bonus episode, a quick look at current conditions in Glacier, and some helpful trip planning information if you're coming to the park soon.

Vehicle Reservation Information: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/gtsrticketedentry.htm

Current Conditions & Construction: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/conditions.htm

The Glacier National Park Conservancy: https://glacier.org/

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TRANSCRIPT:

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Lacy Headwaters is brought to you by the Glacier National Park Conservancy.

Gaby: What's it like in Glacier right now?

Visitor #1: Outstanding. Sunny, blue skies, hot if there's no shade. But.

Visitor #2: You know, I personally had to jump on an Alpine Lake to cool down because it was so hot.

Visitor #3: It's been great. It's a little warmer than I expected, but it's just, I just love it.

Michael: What are you in line for right now?

Visitor #3: To get huckleberry heaven ice cream to try.

Michael: Is this, would you recommend this as a way to cool down?

Visitor #3: Definitely. Ice cream does that for us, yes.

Gaby: It's August in Glacier are busy season and we're busy for good reason. We have over 700 miles of trail here and August is perhaps the only time of year when all of them are accessible.

Michael: All right, Gaby, what time is it and what are we doing right now?

Gaby: It's 7 a.m. bright and early, and we're getting on the Free Express shuttle to Logan Pass.

Gaby: I've been super eager to explore Glacier's mountains, but ever since I moved here in January, they've been buried under a blanket of snow. And for seven months now, I've been patiently waiting for that blanket to melt. And today I'm finally going to hike one of the most famous hikes in the park, the Highline Trail.

Nancy: Okay, so five move on up, alrighty!

Gaby: The Highline is one of the few hikes here that starts and ends in two different places, which is why the park shuttle is a super popular way to do it.

Gaby: Do you get a lot of Highline hikers on here?

Nancy: Yeah, almost everybody that goes up to Logan at this time of year is probably going on The Highline.

Gaby: That's Nancy, our shuttle driver this morning.

Nancy: Everybody else going to Logan then? Yeah. I just want to make sure because I'm not going anywhere else. [laughs].

Gaby: By taking the shuttle, you don't have to worry about getting back to where you started and you don't have to pay for parking, but you do have to keep an eye on the time the shuttles run every 15 to 30 minutes, but they don't run 24 seven.

Gaby: Okay. So this says it's 7.6 miles to Greenwich Park Chalet and another 4.2 back down to the loop where we'll catch the shuttle again.

Gaby: The last shuttle from the loop that can take you back to Apgar is at 7:25, and the last shuttle heading back to Logan Pass is at 6:30.

Nancy: Enjoy your day!

Gaby: We're in Logan Pass. I've been warned that the next restroom is seven miles away and there's no water on the trail. So I'm going to make sure to take care of those things before I head out. If you're driving up to Logan Pass from the West Side and you look up a little bit, you might see some people walking along the mountain and that's the Highline. Definitely getting a bit narrow, on one side is sheer rock face, and the other looks like there's a 100 foot drop off to the road. It's wide enough that two people can walk past each other, but I'm seeing plenty of people using the cable bolted into the rock to feel steady.

Gaby: The Highline Trail was finished and opened to tourists on August 3rd, 1918, which was 14 years before the first car would drive over Logan Pass. While today it's mostly used by hikers, it was built with horses in mind as a way to connect chalets in Many Glacier, St Mary, and Lake MacDonald.

Gaby: So we haven't been walking for 2 minutes and we already stumbled into a mountain goat.

Gaby: Trail crews put in a lot of work in the park, and the highline is no exception. The trail only opens after dangerous snowfields are manually cleared and the trail is built to withstand a lot: rushing creeks, avalanches and thousands of footsteps every year. Its route was chosen to balance safety, scenery, sustainability and steepness. Switchbacks make going uphill easier, but you still got to earn it.

Gaby: We started at the highest point of elevation so you can drive to. So I guess I didn't think I'd have to hike uphill. I was wrong.

Gaby: The Highline is a powerful reminder of the ways we often underestimate nature. For one thing, it's colder up high! Logan Pass is, on average, 15 degrees colder than where I live and work down at West Glacier.

Gaby: We've gone 3.5 miles now to Haystack Butte, and even though, down low, it's been 95 degrees this wee, here I am wearing a jacket. And I'm glad I brought it. But now it's getting a little hot and it might be ready to change some layers.

Gaby: It's also harder to catch your breath in the Alpine, and you're more likely to get some bird like passes through less air to reach you. And then there's the weather. Higher elevations here get more precipitation, 100 inches annuallyup high, to as little as 23 inches down low. You can encounter rain, hail and snow any day of the year.

Gaby: Okay. We're on goat number two. We'll definitely be keeping count. I want to know how many goats I see by the end of this trail.

Gaby: Knowing about these extremes, I can't help but be amazed at what lives here. Plants like the glacier lily that can cope with the short and unpredictable growing season, and animals like mountain goats who can navigate the extreme terrain and climate. And people stay up here, too. I've seen plenty of hikers with sleeping pads and backpacks heavier than mine. The place everyone wants to stay, though, is at the Granite Park Chalet.

Gaby: [Gasp] Whoa! There it is!

Michael: What is it?

Gaby: It's the chalet!

Gaby: 7.2 miles from Logan, past these three rustic cabins, high on a hill, have been hosting people for over 100 years.

I made it to the chalet, and while I wish I were staying here tonight, I probably need to head out soon to catch the shuttle. But before I go, I'm going to go to the front porch and take in this view one last time before I hike out. I'm looking back on the on where you came from, and it's just wild because I can't even see the visitor center anymore. I can see Logan Pass and the area where we started, but the trail kind of just disappears into the mountain. I can't see it at all.

There is an extremely short window of time when we can visit Glacier's high elevations, and the highline is often the first experience any of us have with this world up close. But it's rarely the last.

If the air is clear, you can see several glaciers from here. With a pair of binoculars and a map, you can see over 35 named mountains. And with some luck, you might even see a grizzly. But it's not hard to see why people love this place.

That's what it's like in the park right now. Up next is some helpful trip planning information if you're coming to the park soon, and if you stick around to the end, we'll have the answer to this month's trivia question: glacier has over 700 miles of trails, and Logan Pass sits at 6646 feet of elevation. How many miles of trail in the park are higher than Logan Pass?

Michael: First off, welcome to the studio, Gaby. You're our brand new member of the Headwaters Team.

Gaby: This is so fun. I'm so happy to be here.

Michael: I was lucky enough to get to hike the Highline with you, but we didn't include any audio from our hike down the loop trail to catch our shuttle. Why is that?

Gaby: It was so hot. It was so hot and there was no shade coming down the loop and we hit it exactly during the heat of the day.

Michael: Yeah, I was sweating buckets. I didn't want that to ruin our headphones, but that's a good thing to keep in mind. Like the highline is 12 miles, so even if you start early, you're going to hit this area: burned in 2003, no shade during the hottest part of the day. And it's it's a beast.

Gaby: It's a beast. And I went through I don't know about you, but I went through all my water.

Michael: Yeah, three liters.

Gaby: Three liters.

Michael: I would say that most of the people that wind up needing help while hiking the highline need help coming down the loop. You're dropping 2300 feet in elevation. That cool high elevation climate that you were in all day.

Gaby: Gone, gone.

Michael: So you really want to be prepared to go through that.

Gaby: Definitely bring more water than you think. Bring plenty of food and snacks. Sun protection: I was wearing my sun shirtall day. Michael was rocking a sunhat.

Michael: Yep, dorky sun hats for the win.

Gaby: And even though we made it to the loop during the hottest part of the day, you can definitely plan around the weather. So if you know that that part of the day is really hot and you're sensitive to heat, maybe choose another activity during those hours.

Michael: Tis the season to go floating. So yeah, finding a cooler activity. It's safe to say heat is a current condition applicable to most of the park, but for other real time updates on what's going on in Glacier, how could you find out more information?

Gaby: Definitely check the website and the social media for sure. And we have this new thing called Glacier National Park updates that come out via text.

Michael: Right? So you could essentially sign up to get texts when campgrounds fill, when trails are closed or when roads are closed. How do you do that?

Gaby: The number to text is 333111. And for trail closures, you text the message. GNPTRAILS for campground updates, you text GNPCGS, and for road statuses you can text GNPROADS.

Michael: Great. So send any of those three things to 333111 and you'll be updated if a trail closes because of bears or if an entrance closes because it's really busy. Again, this is the busiest month, it feels like of the summer. So it's really helpful to get those updates in real time.

Gaby: Exactly. And there's so many. So yeah.

Michael: What are other things that people might need to know before a visit?

Gaby: Definitely. You should know about vehicle reservations, right?

Michael: Yes. Walk me through that.

Gaby: Yes. So you definitely need to know about vehicle reservations, which the park is implementing to help people manage planning their trips to the park and also to manage congestion because it can get real busy here. So the peak hours for Going-to-the-Sun road is between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m.. So during those hours, you need a vehicle reservation.

Michael: And that's true between West Glacier at the west entrance and rising sun on the east side of Going to-the-sun.

Gaby: Exactly. And then for the North Fork, peak hours are between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.. Between those hours, you need a vehicle reservation.

Michael: So those are the two parts of the park that require vehicle reservations. You don't need a vehicle reservation to get into Many Glacier, to get into Two Medicine, but those places are filling up pretty much every day just by how many folks are driving and taking up all the parking spots.

Gaby: Exactly.

Michael: But back to the vehicle reservations. How do you get one?

Gaby: So reservations are available 8 a.m. Mountain Time the day before on recreation of reservations lasts for three days on going to this on road and one day in the North Fork.

Michael: Great. And we'll have links in the show notes for all of this information so you can figure out about vehicle reservations, Glacier National Park updates, hiking the Highline and more.

Gaby: It's hot and it's busy, but it's a great time to be here if you come prepared. That's it for this episode. If you've made it this far, you're probably curious about this month's trivia question. How many miles of trail and glacier are higher than Logan Pass? The answer about 72 miles of trail, or roughly 1/10th of our trail system. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.