this was our 15th trip in 18 years to gnp....

[ptguard]

we drove up from bozeman on sunday morning & arrived at many glacier hotel just after noon. never get tired of sitting on that deck. we walked up to a spot we always go to above the mgh parking lot that overlooks the creek that runs from lake sherburne to swiftcurrent lake. we cracked open a 6 pack of beer that afternoon & reminisced about all our past trips & laughed about "would we know it when we made our last trip".

drove over to swiftcurrent parking lot & made the short walk to fishercap lake in hopes of seeing a moose. dinner was swiftcurrent pizza which we ate in the parking lot eating looking for bears on the side of the mountain with many others.

we debated on whether to leave very early on monday morning for logan pass & hope for a parking spot but decided on the less stressful option of taking our time & parking at st. mary's visitor's center & taking the shuttle. it was a very easy process & we didn't have to wait more than 10-15 minutes. as usual the parking lot at logan pass was hammered with people waiting on spots to park at about 10am. highline was very busy as usual & we had a great weather day to hike. stopped at haystack butte to eat our lunch & the only wildlife we had encountered were the usual mountain goats. even though we have done this hike many times i always forget how much farther you have to go when you first get a glimpse of granite park chalet.

we made it to the chalet in a little over 4 hours. the hosts were great. checked us into our room & explained kitchen procedures. we pre-purchased the bedding & meals out of convenience. they sell water if you need it but it's expensive ($11 for 1 litre). however, there is a water tank a little over 1/4 mile away that's serviced by the national park service. the chalet furnishes you a 2 gal water jug that you can take & fill & that's what we did. we had planned to hike up to swiftcurrent pass after resting but the weather didn't look great & i was afraid we might get caught in a thunderstorm. dinner was dehydrated beef stew & it was about as expected (tasty but a little chewy). since our packs weren't going to be full i surprised my wife with her favorite bottle of wine i had packed in & we drank it watching distant thunderstorms. we have verizon & was able to get a good enough signal to call the kids/grandkids.

i knew there would be very little insulation in the rooms but it was almost comical at how thin the walls were. it was like you were in the same room with others as far as hearing every sound. we dealt with rain & thunderstorms a good part of the night which helped me sleep pretty comfortably. we were up around 6:30 & by 7:00 most were stirring. we had coffee, ate our "denver scramble" (dehydrated eggs, cheese, pototoes), & debated on the route out that morning.

it was raining in distance & i was able to pull up the weather app on my phone. forcast didn't look good & i knew if we hiked back out highline or over swiftcurrent we were going to be doing half the hike in the rain. we decided to take the loop which we figured we could do in 2 hours & hopefully avoid getting soaked. ended up hiking in the rain the last 45 minutes. we got to the shuttle stop & one came by within 10 minutes but it was full. ended up having to wait another 30 minutes for the next one so we were pretty wet even though we had rain gear. shuttled to logan pass then on to st. mary's & were eating lunch at the snowgoose grill by noon. was disappointed that the park cafe wasn't open.

spent the afternoon repeating the same routine at many glacier hotel & had a super dinner at cattle barons that evening. adding some pictures from our trip but can't take credit for the sunrise rainbow which was given to me by a mgh worker that took it the morning we were at granite park. not sure why some are sideways but if you click on them they straighten out.

[orin]

Thank you for the report. When I was there the end of June we had an evening shower followed by a beautiful sunset rainbow. Of course by the time I walked back to the room to get a camera it had faded away.

Having stayed at Granite Park many times I completely agree about how sonically thin the walls are. That has always surprised me because as your photo shows those walls are made of very substantial looking vertical logs. They sure don’t muffle sound though.

[teapot57]

What an amazing rainbow photo!

May there be many more trips in your future.

[paul]

That rainbow photo is one of the best I've seen in the park. Maybe you should enter it in a photography contest.

[Jay w]

That rainbow picture is amazing. (Is there an echo in here?) Thanks for the report.

[davidwayne]

I will ECHO what others have said..beautiful rainbow picture! And thank you for the trip report.