Day 7
Monday September 21, 2020
Sadly, I did have to leave Glacier National Park. Check out was 11A, so I decided to drive into Logan Pass and do the mile and half hike out to the Hidden Lake overlook. A nice three mile round trip would be easy to do in my time frame.
It’s about a twenty mile drive point to point and takes about forty minutes. On the ride up the hill, I drove into a light fog. A few minutes later, I pulled over. The next half hour was spent leaning against the car in the forty degree breeze, just watching the clouds roll around the valley. It was like a pure white wave rippling through the valley and running up the mountainside on the far end, only at an extremely slow pace.
I could have stayed here all morning. Instead, I finished the drive to the parking lot, filling up fast. Forty degrees, and for the first time, crystal clear. I saw all the hikers heading out for their day on the Highline Trail and knew they were in for real treat.
As for me, the Hidden Lake trail is a pretty easy one, with most of it on the wooden walkway.
Eventually, you do get to the overlook. The trail down is closed due to frequent bear activity.
Back in the parking lot, it was crawling with cars looking for spots. On the drive back I stopped a few times, still marveling at the clouds below.
One more stop by Lake McDonald on the drive out.
Within a week of leaving Glacier National Park, they had their second snowfall of the year. With the smoke now gone from the park, the bears were coming out, too. By the end of the month, the Northern Lights made an appearance. One more reason to come back again.
After leaving the park, I worked my way back towards Kalispell. It was just after noon when I arrived, looking for some lunch. With four breweries in town, there were plenty of options.
Bias Brewery was two blocks off Hwy 2. The place was pretty quiet when I arrived. I inquired about lunch. Their menu was varied, but limited. Mike was bartending and told me they were having staffing issues, thus no one to cook. That’s when the owner walked in, and offered to make me a sandwich. He asked about the beer I was sipping. It's was called Loopback Tea Pale Ale. There's definitely a flavor of tea and it's quite delicious. It's the owner's favorite. When he tried a tea pale ale somewhere else, it got him thinking about opening his own brewery.
I said my good-byes and headed northwest towards Libby.
It’s about an hour and fifteen minutes and the drive was much like this…
My home for the next two nights was the Caboose Motel. It’s your basic old school motel. The room was spotless and surprisingly large.
As you might suspect by now, dinner was in Libby’s own brewery, Cabinet Mountain Brewing. Like many places, they’ve created a beer garden out back, and some seating by the front sidewalk.
As the late afternoon turned to evening, I found myself in Riverview Park awaiting sunset.
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