One of my favorite memories from our 2025 Glacier visits.
A high-mountain chalet made from mountain-side rocks.
A small, spartan room, stone floor, with a steel bunkbed and one folding chair. A window, modest wall mirror and tiny nightstand. A wooden door that locks only from the inside.
The walls are thick from the massive rock ‘bricks’.
If you climb up onto the outside windowsill, you create a homemade, natural ‘chair’.
Sometimes it’s the best seat on the Continental Divide.
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Bottom to top: Swiftcurrent Lake, Lake Josephine, Angel Wing, with Gem Glacier (formerly a glacier) on the Continental Divide. Many Glacier’s roofline barely visible.
Glacier ambitions in 2026?
To revisit all our favorites.
The photo above is from a new hike we did in 2025.
Seeing Many Glacier Hotel’s roof line from this vantage point was wonderful.
We could spend all our time in Glacier seeking more, newer.
In 2026, the goal is to visit with our closest Glacier friends.
Glacier ‘friends’ in this context means trails, hikes, overlooks, traditions. Nothing new.
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17-second video: One bear comes down to the trail. Two bears come up to the trail. All three sniff around the trail. What’s the next move?
Gotta say, when the Grizzly family turned our way, it felt super special.
Why?
Because we knew they knew we were there.
So, no surprises.
Second, the cubs were behind the momma.
Perfect.
It literally cannot get better than this.
i had already calculated our two options for retreating without any fuss or hardship.
As a serendipitous bonus, another couple (two college-age National Park Lodge employees) had hiked up to us and we all felt better being a human party of four versus two.
And honestly, it was the last thing i expected or hoped for. But historically, with Grizzly encounters, statistically, more people is better.
We retreated to the only switchback before Lincoln Pass. The wind behind us, it was perfect if i needed to use bear spray.
And the only reason to use bear spray is for a charging bear. We are nearly 15 minutes into this observation and there wasn’t the slightest indication we would be charged.
So if they continued on the trail towards our switch back location, we’d simply continue our retreat, un-rushed and unthreatened, to the nearby Lincoln Peak climber trail and head towards the summit.
Having summited Lincoln Peak several times (not a hard Peak to summit, btw), i felt confident that momma would find no reason to go that way.
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This website is about our WORK. To ponder today’s post about our HOME, click here.
