Glacier National Park September 2012 Day 1

          September was my second time in the last visiting Glacier National Park in the past year.  It was about a 14 hour drive from my home.  We had not applied for an itinerary, so we were going to have obtain a walk-in permit from the ranger station.  I had never done this before, so I was a little confused about the process.  Since it was so late in the season, only the Apgar Backcountry Permit Station was open.  It opened at 7 am so we figured that getting there at about 6:45 would more than suffice.  When we showed up at 6:45 there were already 5 different groups waiting in-line.  Needless to say Glacier is a popular backpacking destination.

      The rangers were very helpful, and we ended up with the following itinerary night one we stayed at Gable Creek CG, night two we stayed at the head of Glenn's Lake, and night 3 we stayed at the foot of Elizabeth Lake.  To get to our starting point which was the Chief Mountain Trailhead parking lot, which is located in the NE section of the park, basically on the Canadian border.  To get there from Apgar, you go across the Going-to-the-Sun road, turn north at St. Mary and take the Montana 17 exit past Babb to head to Chief Mountain.  Its a little over an hour drive from Apgar.  Below are some pictures of the drive.

GTTS Road near Lake McDonald Lodge

St. Mary Lake

     After we got to the trailhead, we started off on the trek.  The first two miles or so are all downhill through a thick forest.  It levels out at about mile 2 and the trail runs through a prairie like region surrounded by mountains on each side.  The trail basically follows the river.

River 

      The terrain remained like this until we got to our first camp, which was Gable Creek.  The campsite was located very near a ranger station.