The hike to Grinnell Glacier is 11 miles long, with 1600' of elevation climb.
Hikers have the option of riding a boat across Swiftcurrent Lake, and then transferring to another boat for a shuttle across Lake Josephine, but these lakes are not large, so the hiking distance saved is only a few miles. And since the trail goes right along the lake shore, the hiking miles that are skipped are all flat easy miles. We eschewed the boat ferry option and hiked the entire distance ourselves.
We started early in the morning for this hike, but not TOO early - the north shore of Lake Josephine was closed due to bear activity, so we didn't want to be the absolutely first people out on the south shore trail in the morning. But leaving early clearly had the benefit that all of our ascent was during the cooler hours of the morning, with cloud cover blocking the sun. In fact the weather could not have been better - the clouds all vanished when we reached the glaciers, so we enjoyed unobstructed views of the glaciers. We spent at least an hour at the end of the trail, enjoying the glaciers and the view. We saw a lot of people on the Grinnell Glacier trail, and that is no surprise, because it is a fantastic hike. I was glad so many people got to enjoy the same great day that we had.
When we got back to the trail head at Many Glacier Lodge, we went inside to get ice cream. On the walls of the lower hallway the park has posted a series of "then and now" photographs. They show pictures taken of various glaciers in the 1920s and 1930s. Modern photographers in the last 10 years have returned to the same locations and take the same pictures of the glaciers. This makes it easy to contrast how large the glaciers were back then, compared to the modern diminutive size. The glaciers are vanishing quickly. I was glad we could see these before they disappear.
All the graphic images are my own, but the textured background is taken from a site, EOS development, that offers non-profit users free use of their graphics. Click below to visit their site.
Single click on any thumbnail to open photo in new window. (You don't need to close the previous photo to click a new thumbnail.) Place your cursor over any thumbnail to see the picture title.
Grinnell Glacier Hike Photos
