Grinnell Glacier Trail is located within Glacier National Park in Montana. It is located at the West side of Glacier National Park. The trail to Grinnell Glacier is about 11 miles round trip with come elevation gains. It is also one of the most popular hiking trail in the area and the parking area gets full very quickly even at 7AM in the morning. This trail is also known to have a lot of bear sightings, thus hiker need to be extra cautious when hiking this trail.
We got to Grinnell Glacier Trail head by 7AM and the parking lot was already full. We had to park the car on the side of the road and there was a ranger arranging the cars. We were surprised by how early people get here.
The first part of the trail goes through thick woods and we were quite nervous. We could see berry bushes along the side of the trail and there were thick vegetation on the side. It was a place where bear could show up at any time. We were paying attention to our surrounding and had our bear spray ready. Luckily nothing happened and we moved forward. As we got to Lake Josephine, there was a boat docking there. Lake Josephine was beautiful in early morning. The lake surface was so calm. We stayed there for a bit just to enjoy the moment.
The trail then started to climb a bit at the top of the hill. We could see the lake beneath us and we also caught up to many groups of hikers. This made us more relaxed since we were in a larger pack of people.
Although the weather was hazy, we could still see the beautiful mountains along the trail. We also saw Grinnell Lake beneath us with beautiful emerald color. We really loved it. Then the trail moved forward and there was a stream of water flowing cross the rocky trail. The rocks were soaked by water and the trail was very slippery. This was the part where every hiker needs to be very cautious and make sure not to slip. There were hikers even taking a bath here to cool down the body temperature.
The last part of the trail was climbing on man made rocky stairs. This was the worst part. We hated walking on these stairs because each step was quite high. After about 0.4 miles of walking on the stairs we finally made it to Grinnell Glacier. There were large chunks of ice in the lake and the color of the lake was beautiful emerald color. The area around the glacier was quite cold. We could feel the cold breeze blowing across the glacier. Although the day was hot, it was still cold there.
As we drove back, we saw a big grizzly bear just on the side of the road. It was using its paws to collect the berries from the bush and put it in its mouth. It was our first time seeing a real grizzly bear and we were quite excited.
Overall, Grinnelle Glacier Trail is an amazing trail. It has great scenery and a path to be right by the real glacier. The glacier is shrinking however, but we could still see its beautiful landscape.
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