Hiking in Glacier National Park and tasting Canadian ales

I am just back from a awesome hiking trip in Glacier National Park, Montana. Of course, we had many adventures, saw big horn sheep, mountain goats, marmots, and I still remember the fear I had when I saw my first Grizzly bear!

Our trip started with a 7.6 mile hike on the Highline Trail that took us to the Granite Park Chalet, a rustic backcountry chalet only accessible by trails.


Hiking on the Highline Trail

As we stayed two nights at Granite Park Chalet, we hiked the following day up to Swiftcurrent Lookout, which sits at 8436' on the Continental Divide, and to the Grinnell Glacier Overlook, looking down onto one of the largest glaciers of the park.


Grinnell Glacier Overlook

Then we drove to the bordering Waterton Lakes National Park, located in Alberta, Canada. This part of the park offers many interesting hikes too, including the Crypt Lake trail, one of Canada's best-known trails. It is a full day hike that takes you to great waterfalls, an iron ladder climb, a natural tunnel, an exposed cliff traverse, and finally a hidden alpine lake surrounded by snow covered peaks.


The 600 ft cascading Crypt Falls

Alberta's main brewery is the Big Rock Brewery, which offers a pretty good selection of brews from light, crisp lagers to rich, full-flavored stouts. Among the ones we tasted, our favorites were the Traditional, an English-style amber ale, the McNally's Extra, a stronger Irish-style ale with a 7% alcohol content, and on the sweeter side, the Honey Brown Lager with a touch of clover honey. After a long day of hiking, I can tell you: these beers were absolutely delicious!



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