Highline Trail, Glacier National Park

Hold on Tight, a photo by b-a-boop on Flickr.

This is Bob holding on to the handrail made from hose along a narrow section at the beginning of the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park in Montana. It was one of our most adveturous hikes as we got stuck out on the trail in a lightning storm and had to seek cover in the rocky ledge.

Where this photo was taken there’s about a 200’ drop down onto the “Going to the Sun” road below. 

You can hike this trail up to some cabins that are only accessible on foot, but we didn’t go that far.

We had hiked quite a distance from the trailhead when the sky started to darken. We saw other hikers scurrying past us to go back to the lower end of the trail, but we didn’t think there was enough time to get back before the rain came, so we didn’t turn around.

 This beautiful hike had gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains, although when I saw a lightning bolt curve over and strike the mountain on the other side of the valley it really frightened me. Up to that point I had figured we were safe against the side of the mountain. Luckily we had some rain ponchos with us & in the last photo you can see the rock outcropping we happened upon that sheltered us from the rain. It was a good thing the storm passed quickly and we even had sunshine again on the way back.

This hike is highly recommended by us both.

travel dates sept. 2004