Glacier National Park Hiking the Crown of the Continent..
August 9-14, 2012

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Glacier National Park is part of the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem. The Park was created in 1910 and most of the park infrastructure; roads, inns, etc were built in the 30's. One hundred and fifty years ago there were 150 glaciers actively moving. Today, only 25 remain and they could be gone in another 10-20 years. The park is also noted for its 300 grizzly bears.


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As you can see, the park is located on the Canadian border, in the north western portion of Montana.The route is marked in green on the topo map, the white X's are start, end and campsites. The yellow line is the continental divide. Our trek of 30+ miles started from the Many Glacier area, headed west for 8 miles then north following the divide for 20+ miles to the border of Canada.


Glacier Topo
The elevation profile of our route. The first 2 days involved steep climbs over 7,000' passes. After that, it was smooth sailing DOWNHILL.

As a safety precaution I had the route preloaded in my GPS to keep us from getting lost and I also carry a SPOT, which is a satellite GPS messenger system that receives a signal from my SPOT transponder and then sends the location to a server that anyone on the internet with my code can access on the web and locate me on the map. Bette was able to track our progress each day and know exactly where we were. It also has a 911 button incase there is an emergency, the SPOT monitoring service will send HELP!!

All of us carried bear spray as a emergency deterrent. At each primitive camp ground, the park provides a separate "kitchen area" away from tent platforms and a place to store food so bears will NOT be tempted to wander through a camp site.


Barry