The next day was cold, windy and rainy when we woke up so we decided to take a drive to Bowman Lake , a less visited section of West Glacier to look for wildlife. A fellow camper we met in Wallace a couple days ago told us it was worth the longish drive on mostly dirt roads to get there. We headed out and after driving about 40 minutes came to the off the grid “town” of Polebridge which only consisted of a general store/bakery known as “The Merc” and a couple of cabins. We got out of the truck and were greeted by the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread and pastries. We both chose a delicious huckleberry cream cheese croissant that had just come out of the oven and also bought a loaf of garlic cheddar bread to have with our dinner.
We got back in the truck and headed for Bowman Lake, another 6 miles down another dirt road. We carefully scanned the woods and fields as we drove looking for wildlife and didn’t realize how much time went by since we started driving – it was at least 45 more minutes and shouldn’t have taken that long to go 6 miles – een on a dirt road to the lake. Of course we had no cell phone coverage the entire time we were in Glacier and I couldn’t pull a map up on my phone. I found the paper map they gave us when we entered the park and quickly realized we were going the wrong way. In fact, we were almost to the Canadian border on a road that had no border crossing. I realized this as we had been following a large fast flowing river, the North Fork of the Flathead River and there was no river near the road leading to Bowman Lake. We turned around and found the road to the lake just past the bakery. We took it and headed for the lake. It was very bumpy and full of potholes from the recent rain and thaw.
Bowman Lake is a secluded glacial lake with crystal clear water and a trail that runs along the 9-mile length of the lake. We hiked about 4 1/2 miles and then turned back as the sky was looking ominous. .By the time we got back to the campsite the weather had cleared and we had a campfire and made plans for the next day. We decided we would bike the Going to the Sun Road again as it was so awesome the first time and wh knows when we would be back.
The next morning we woke to brilliant sunshine and after a quick breakfast, we packed a lunch and headed out to bike up to the Loop again. Even though we had bikes the same route a. Purple of days ago, things looked different and even more beautiful with the colors and shadows of the early morning sun. Of course we took more photos.
One of the hikes we had hoped to do was the hike up Avalanche Lake. We planned to do it the next day but the weather called for cold temps and rain all day. As we ate our lunch at the creek we decided to do the hike after lunch despite being tired. The trail head was close to where we parked the truck for the bike ride.
The hike to the lake was beautiful but the view of the lake was amazing. Several waterfalls cascaded down from the top and the water was crystal clear with beautiful multicolored rocks at the bottom. We were so glad we decided to hike despite being tired. It truly was a beautiful but exhausting day.
