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July 30 - August 5, 2006 Other Trips
With back-to-back nights at the Glacier Gorge and Andrews Creek backcountry camps, we planned to devote our first three days in the park to exploring the Glacier Gorge region. Our trip began with a spectacular hike to Shelf and Solitude Lakes.
Shelf and Solitude Lakes sit about 1 mile south of Mills Lake and about 1,000 feet above Glacier Creek, which runs through the bottom of Glacier Gorge. A well-developed trail runs from the trailhead all the way up the Gorge to Black Lake, but there is no developed trail to Shelf & Solitude Lakes. To get there, one must cross Glacier Creek about a mile beyond Mills Lake (more on how to locate the crossing point below). A rough trail is fairly easy to follow for the first third of the steep, 1,000-foot ascent, but the latter portion is marked only by very sporadic rock cairns. If in doubt, move towards Shelf Creek, which empties down from Shelf Lake into Glacier Creek.
Unfortunately, the small Glacier Gorge TH parking lot was full by the time we arrived at about 7:30 a.m. We drove on to the much larger Bear Lake TH parking lot. After making last minute adjustments to our packs and applying the sunscreen and bug spray, we hit the trail.
The first portion of our hike was a short, .4-mile spur trail back down to the Glacier Gorge TH. From the Glacier Gorge TH, it is just .6 miles to our first stop, Alberta Falls. The trail to Alberta is fairly low in elevation and passes through a beautiful grove of Aspen trees. Alberta Falls is one of the most popular destinations in the park due to its close location to the trailhead and impressive nature of the falls. After taking a brief break for some pictures, we continued ahead towards Mills Lake. Above Alberta, there are numerous points along the trail where the trees open up to offer incredible panoramas of the Mummy Range.
(Place cursor over picture for caption. Click on picture to enlarge.)
A little more than a mile beyond Alberta, the trail splits. Hiking west - towards the Loch, Andrews Glacier, Timberline Falls, Lake of Glass and Sky Pond - would be tomorrow’s hike. Today, we continued south towards Mills Lake. A half-mile beyond the junction, we arrived at Mills. Mills is one of the prettiest lakes in the park. From left to right, Longs, the Keyboard of the Winds, and Mount Meeker provide a very impressive backdrop, seen here shrouded in the sleepy blue morning mist.
Tonight’s accommodations, Glacier Gorge backcountry camp, sits about 3/4 miles beyond Mills just across Glacier Creek from the trail. This camp is one of the most popular in the park based largely on it being located right in the heart of Glacier Gorge. If you wish to camp here, particularly in peak Season (mid-July to mid-August), you must book well in advance. We arrived at the campsite at about 10:00 a.m. Last night’s campers were still at the site, so we dropped our packs, hung our bear bags, assembled our daypacks, and then set off for Shelf & Solitude.
The hike between Mills and Black Lake is one of the prettiest stretched of trail in the park. It follows closely to Glacier Creek and passes through numerous meadows filled with wildflowers. Our hike today would not go all the way to Black. Rather, we left the trail just about a half-mile beyond Mills to head up to Shelf & Solitude. The turn-off to these lakes is not marked (at least by sign) but it is easy to find. Just look for the Arrowhead – a very prominent rock formation that will appear abruptly to the west through a break in the trees created by an avalanche. This picture, unfortunately over-exposed, is the best I can provide. You will see several large rocks in Glacier Creek, which make crossing the stream relatively simple. Also, if you look closely enough, you will see a trail winding up into the trees.
The ascent to Shelf & Solitude is very steep at points but offers many pay-offs in addition to the final destination. First, the views back towards Longs and the Keyboard are fantastic. Second, the trail passes by several unnamed cascades and waterfalls that, in my opinion, rival any in the park. The wild flowers are abundant and varied. It was here that we had our first columbine sighting. Through the trip, I observed that the columbines, at least at this time of year, were only found between about 10,500 and 11,500 feet.
We took numerous breaks along the ascent. Often the group stopped so that one or two could scout ahead and make sure we were still following the “trail” which essentially disappears after the first 300 to 400 feet of ascent. My Garmin GPS proved invaluable in keeping a more or less straight heading towards the lakes. When in doubt, we headed towards Shelf Creek. Veer too far from the creek and you risk both hitting a rocky dead-end and missing an amazing waterfall. In any event, there is never really any question which way the trail goes – it goes up! – a remark which I continued to make to the great annoyance of my fellow hikers.
At long last, we reached Shelf Lake. I will just use some pictures for the next several thousand words.
Solitude Lake sits just about a hundred feet above Shelf. While Solitude has an impressive backdrop of mountains, overall, I felt Shelf Lake was more impressively situated – like a swimming pool at the top of a 1,000-foot skyscraper.
We broke for lunch at Solitude, and here is where the trouble began. My youngest brother, Andrew, decided it would be a good idea to eat his lunch on a rock about 10-feet into the lake. On the way back, he slipped and cut his heel on a rock. The blood was gushing pretty badly, especially underwater. We were faced with the difficult choice of helping him to hobble down the mountain, or leaving him behind and having to divide his additional pack weight among the rest of us. In the end, we decided to at least give some first-aid a try. Without the means to amputate (we could not find the rock which cut his heel), we fashioned a bandage out of a bandana. I then proceeded to drop Drew’s socks in the lake, which he did not find funny but actually was. After wasting much time administering aid, we finally started heading back down. At this point, Drew decided to develop cramps in his legs. This, at least, was easily remedied by making him hike down the mountain backwards.
We also had a lot of fun trying to re-locate the trail, which had somehow completely changed from the route we followed during the ascent. We finally returned to camp at about 4:00 p.m. Dinner was our first chance to test the “heater meals.” Rather than messing with stoves, boiling water, and cleaning dishes, we decided to try something new this year. The meal consisted of a cardboard box containing a sealed plastic food dish, a Styrofoam tray and chemical pack, and a bag of salt water. First, the box is carefully opened so that it can be resealed. Next, the salt water is emptied onto the chemical pack on the tray. Finally, the food dish is placed on the tray and inserted back into the box. The salt water initiates a chemical reaction that heats the food, and 10 minutes later, you have a hot meal ready to eat. At least, that is what the directions promised. Surprisingly, it worked out pretty well! The food wasn’t too bad and, best of all, cleanup was a breeze.
That evening, I walked back down to Mills Lake for some much anticipated pictures of sunset reflecting off the west side of Longs. Unfortunately, heavy cloud cover dashed my hopes and provided one the trip’s few disappointments. We retired to camp and hit the sack early in preparation of Day 2: Sky Pond & Andrews Glacier.
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