After our hikes on the west side of the park, Zach and I decided that we should make a trip to the more easterly part, where the mountains are more dramatic and the hikes more intense. We didn’t want to drive nearly three hours to get to the most iconic part of Glacier, so we decided on the southeastern corner, a little area with few roads called Two Medicine. A ranger gave us some hiking suggestions, and off we drove, skirting the park’s southern edge on wide curving mountain roads.
Two hours and a nice sing-along to Yellow Submarine later, we arrived at Two Medicine’s central hub, which consists of a camp store and a ranger station perched on the edge of a lake. As we stepped out of the car, a ferocious wind whipped about us, and we saw that the lake was covered in whitecaps. Still, the cool weather was so welcome after the muggy heat that we didn’t mind too much.
We ended up piecing together a route that generally looped around the main Two Medicine Lake, with a few spurs, both incidental and multi-mile, to visit waterfalls, scenic overlooks, and Upper Medicine Lake. The route was well over ten miles, so it took up all late morning and early afternoon, as we strolled through wetlands, huffed and puffed up steep switchbacks, and trekked through arid alpine forests.
Near Upper Two Medicine Lake, the trail disappeared into a foot of water, and we had to hop up onto snowfields and find our way from there. Everywhere we looked, the gorgeous scenery felt overwhelming in the best possible way.
After our hike, we chilled for a while in the camp store, looking out over the lake with its impossibly gorgeous scenery. It was a good day.
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