If you follow Hike 734 you are probably aware that Jake is currently hiking and exploring Olympic National Park in Washington. Although I’d love to join him on this adventure, my full-time job as a Diagnostic Medical Sonographer and some lingering limitations from the long recovery process of a fractured foot is keeping me close to home for the time being. Fortunately, I’m lucky enough to have Glacier Park as my “backyard” playground! So a couple of girlfriends and I took advantage of the sunshine filled weekend and got some Glacier dirt under our feet.
It’s mid July (*GASP*…summer please slow down!) and the snow in the high country is melting quickly and trail crews have been busy clearing many of our favorite trails, but we decided to do a hike that the three of us had not done before. We were also looking to avoid crowds of people, so we chose a less frequented area of the park. Medicine Grizzly Lake is located in the Cut Bank drainage. We’ve seen this lake several times from high above at Triple Divide Pass, so we decided to check it out from its shoreline.
The level trail takes you alongside a beautiful creek and through gorgeous flower-filled meadows to a picturesque lake backdropped by rocky, mountain peaks laced with waterfalls.
This area of the park provides great habitat for moose and bear (we saw three bears grazing in a grassy meadow along the creek), and if fishing is your thing make sure to bring your pole (we saw lots of fish rising in the lake)!
Once at Medicine Grizzly Lake, I recommend continuing on to the head of the lake. From there, you will have a different vantage of the lake and surrounding peaks, see more waterfalls, and find a nice place to sit and enjoy a snack, breath deeply of the mountain air, and just take it all in!
On a side note, I’m planning on contributing to the Hike 734 site more regularly with posts specific to healthy eating/recipes (especially those I enjoy taking with me on the trail), motivation for staying fit, tools for living a healthy and active lifestyle, and hiking from a female prospective. So be on the lookout for more to come! That being said, I’d love to hear your thoughts and requests on topics and questions I can discuss with you.
Stay active, get outside, and enjoy a bit of nature this week!
Mrs. Hike 734
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