The Tale of Crypt Lake

It was a dark and stormy night. Ok, no it wasn't. Actually, it was a bright and sunny morning, but how can you start a story about a hike with the name Crypt Lake without an opening line like "It was a dark and stormy night?" Well, now the mood has been killed, so I'll just stick with what actually happened.

Last year a couple of rangers came back from a hike raving about this amazing trail to Crypt Lake, which is in Waterton National Park in Canada. Waterton shares its southern border with Glacier National Park's northern border. Together the two parks form the world's first International Peace Park. The rangers I talked with told me it was the best trail that they've been on. In Waterton? Not Glacier? Well, being a home grown, all-around American boy from the south, I had my doubts that Canada had a trail that could rival some of my favorite trails in Glacier, but the more they talked, the more intrigued I became. So, this year, the hike to Crypt Lake was on my must-do list and honestly I wish I had waited until nearer the end of the season.

Your journey to Crypt Lake starts out at the Waterton marina where you purchase a boat ticket. Yep, that's right, a boat ticket. You can't drive to the trailhead. You have to ride the boat across Waterton Lake where it drops you off at the start of the trail.

The boat had at least fifty people on it and everyone is there to hike the same trail as you are. When I realized this, I started to worry. All these people will be starting the trail at the same time. With me. I don't want to hike in line for 5.4 miles behind the guy with the leg brace that has decided to "get back on the horse" or the guy that stops every ten feet to take another picture of an interesting rock or Tom and Sally and their two whining kids! Turns out I didn't have much to worry about. After the first mile or so, the slow hikers started lagging behind and the hiking machines zoomed ahead.

If I could only use one word to describe this trail it would be AMAZING. From the lakeshore you climb into a valley which you follow to its head. Then you switchback up to a hanging valley in which sits Crypt Lake. This is the short description. I don't have enough time or vocabulary to fully describe this trail in all its glory. Suffice it to say, that along the way you pass four waterfalls, a beautiful canyon with the coolest name (Hellroaring), sheer cliffs that would make a mountain goat reconsider his abilities, and the most picture perfect hanging valley complete with a waterfall that drops 492 feet to the valley below. But the best part of this trail lies in the last half mile.

Burnt Rock Falls

Crypt Falls flowing out of the hanging valley

After you climb 2,000 feet in elevation, you cross a creek and the trail suddenly forgets it's a trail and becomes a ledge, a ledge that is about two and a half feet at its widest with a rock wall on your left and a drop of about 400 feet to your right. This ledge hugs around the cliff for about thirty yards then decides it doesn't want to be a ledge anymore. It wants to be a tunnel. Yep, you read it right, a tunnel. The short tunnel is no more than four feet high so you have to "walk" with your rear end practically bumping your ankles, but before you can do this you have to ascend a nine foot iron ladder that is bolted to the cliff to get to the tunnel. Oh, it gets better! After a short walk/crawl the tunnel decides (you guessed it) it's time for a change. It becomes a harrowing scramble up the cliff with only a steel cable to hold on to. You climb about fifty feet and the scramble, that was once a tunnel, that was once a ledge, that was once a trail, gets over its bout with multiple personality disorder and becomes a trail again. Now you are in the hanging valley and another ten minutes of walking brings you to the picturesque Crypt Lake.

A few people couldn't do this and turned around.

The tunnel

Entering the tunnel

Crystal ascending the cable

The view looking back down the cable

Crypt Lake

This is the life!
Hopefully you signed up for the last return boat at 5:30pm so you can spend some time relaxing at the lake because you've got to hike the 5.4 miles back in time to catch it before it leaves you stranded, all alone, in the dark, within the clutches of...Crypt Lake.

Oto-my-goodness!

So it's been pretty busy here. The campground has filled every day since July third. I enjoy my job. I have a great staff. I even like living in the ranger station (which I wasn't too sure I would.) So what about your weekends, you might ask. What do you do on your off days. Well, I do what anyone 2,400 miles away from home and stuck in one of the most magnificent national parks in these great United States would do. I go hiking.

Glacier National Park has over 730 miles of trails and in my third season here, I've only hiked about 160 miles of them. Not a big number, sure, but those are only one way mileages and I've done alot of hikes two or three times just because they're favorites of mine. I usually hike around 250 miles a season (which is just shy of five months.) I have Thursdays and Fridays off. That makes it nice because the trails aren't overrun with people like they are on the weekends and I don't have to hike alone. Crystal, one of my good friends and Tom from campground maintenance both have Fridays off.

With all that being said, I thought I would tell you about my hike last Friday to Otokomi Lake. There's still quite a bit of snow in the high country and I was trying to think of a trail that didn't require an ice axe and crampons to do. Otokomi looked like it fit the bill and it was a trail I hadn't done yet. I suggested it to Crystal and Tom and we all agreed we should do it.

Before I go any farther, I must give credit where credit is due. Most of these photos were taken by Crystal. I decided not to take my big brick of a camera. So, now that that's out of the way I don't have to worry about copyright infringement. Thanks Crystal!

We all met at my place at 7:00 AM. Yes, in the morning. Yes, to go hiking. Crystal volunteered to drive so Tom and I loaded our packs in her Jeep and settled in for the two hour trip over the Going To The Sun Road.

Bighorn Sheep up at Logan Pass.

The trailhead is found to the left of the Rising Sun camp store. The trail gains 1,882 feet in elevation in it's 5.2 miles to reach Otokomi Lake which sits at 6,125 feet in elevation. We head off and Tom immediately leaves us behind coughing in his dust. That boy is a hiking machine. Now, I wasn't sure what to expect on this trail because I had heard some "not so great" things about it, but I was in for a big surprise. The trail wanders through a forested valley following Rose Creek. We pass gorges and small flowered meadows and too many small waterfalls and cascades to keep up with.

See what I mean?

Ok, I think you get the picture. So after about three miles the forest opens up and the trail crosses a moraine, which is a fancy word for a pile of rocks (actually it's the crumbled rock that a glacier leaves behind. So yeah, really it's a pile of rocks!)

About half a mile from the lake the trail drops down to pass by a backcountry campsite then follows the creek up to the outlet to Otokomi Lake and that's where I lost all sense of reality. I looked down into the creek, which is crystal clear by the way, and see loads, no masses, no hoards of fish and I'm not talking little minnows. These things were as long as my forearm! More fish than I've ever seen before in the wild. I mean it actually looked like a fish hatchery! Are you getting the idea yet?

If you look closely you can see the fish. And this is a small group!

Turns out they were Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout and they were spawning. I was told by a coworker to make sure I take fishing gear. I did, but I didn't think I'd be doing much fishing. I'm not much of a fisherman. I usually don't catch anything but today, I thought to myself, maybe I actually have a chance at catching one of these. We spot Tom and he says he's been there about an hour (I'm telling you the boy is a beast.) He's already caught three and he's asking me why I don't have my line in the water yet. So I get my stuff out and start casting. No joke, by the third cast I landed one...then another. I couldn't believe it! Suddenly I'm in "A River Runs Through It" and I'm catching fish after fish! It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen! I changed lures three times and caught fish no matter what I threw in! I don't speak Blackfoot but I'm pretty sure Otokomi means; "lake with miraculous fish that throw themselves at you with no end in sight" (the Blackfoot Indians obviously have learned the economy of words.) I let Crystal use my rod and she ends up catching the biggest fish of the day! It was so big, I couldn't wrap my hand all the way around it.

Tom was fly-fishing while I used a spinner rod. It didn't matter. We both caught a ton of fish.

Proof!!

Tom with one of his catches.

Otokomi Lake itself is a beautiful mountain lake set in a high-walled cirque and to give you just a sense of what it's like being there with the sounds of the water and the birds singing, here's a bonus. A video, also provided by Crystal! Enjoy!

Logan Pass

Well, I promised pictures from Logan Pass, so here they are. Logan Pass is the highest point on the Going To The Sun Road. It sits at 6,646 feet in elevation on the Continental Divide.

Pulling up to the pass.

Notice all the people in shorts.

Lauren had a blast!

It's a hallway of snow!

The poles sticking up through the snow are so that the snowplows

know where the sidewalks are.

The trail to Hidden Lake.

People love to come up here to ski and snowboard in June.

This sign is usually about chest high.

I think this is more snow than she's seen in her entire life!

Ok, there it is. Short and sweet today.

Oh yeah, I have a blog.

Ok, so I haven't kept this thing up as often as I had planned to. I've been pretty busy with work, I started P90X again (which takes an hour and a half at least) and to be honest, I haven't felt very motivated to post since Chrissy and Lauren left. Ok, enough with the excuses. Hopefully I can get back on track with this thing and post a little more regularly.

I've been really busy at work here lately. The Fourth of July marks the beginning of the busy season here at Glacier National Park. We now have all four loops open in the campground and today we have so many reservations coming in that we don't have any spots for walk-ins. We actually started the day calling in "full," which makes for an easy day.

For the past couple of weeks it's been getting steadily warmer with highs in the upper 70's, but yesterday a cold front moved in bringing rain and highs in the 50's and 60's. Of course this happened on my off days! I don't mind the temps but I am completely over the rain. If it keeps raining on my off days I won't get much hiking in this season.

The day before Chrissy and Lauren left was the first day that the Going To The Sun Road (GTTSR) opened completely, so we decided to drive it. The GTTSR was dedicated in 1933. It is approximately 50 miles long and climbs to an elevation of 6,646 ft as it climbs over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass.

People either love the GTTSR or they hate it. It has been called a "don't look down" kind of drive. Just use the turnouts when you do and you should be fine. In the photo below, you can see the road cut across the mountain in the upper right. Because of the sharp curves and narrowness of the road, vehicles longer than 21 feet are prohibited from traveling on the high-country sections.

This is the only road that completely bisects the park from one side to the other. It connects the eastern plains of Montana with the westernmost reach of the Pacific Northwest rain forest in West Glacier. Traveling the road takes you by glacial carved lakes, through prairies, aspen parklands, spruce-fir forests, old-growth forests of western red cedar, alpine meadows covered in wildflowers, by avalanche chutes, waterfalls and gorges carved by melt water and in view of one of the biggest glaciers still left in the park.

The road is currently going through a ten year rehabilitation. Construction on the road has a couple of sections reduced to one lane which means you have to stop and wait for a pilot car.

Here we are at one of those construction stops.

The wait time is usually only for about fifteen minutes and it gives you a chance to get out of your vehicle, look around and snap some photos. You can see the line of cars waiting behind the girls.

Lauren was definitely glad for a chance to get out of that Jeep!

Taken from the park website:
The road officially received its name, “The Going-to-the-Sun Road,” during the 1933 dedication.The road borrowed its name from nearby Going-to-the-Sun Mountain. Local legend and a 1933 press release issued by the Department of the Interior, told the story of the deity, Sour Spirit, who came down from the sun to teach Blackfeet braves the rudiments of the hunt. On his way back to the sun, Sour Spirit had his image reproduced on the top of the mountain for inspiration to the Blackfeet. An alternate story suggests a white explorer in the 1880s concocted the name and the legend. No matter which version is accurate, the road named Going-to-the-Sun still inspires all who travel it.

Don't roll over!

This road is one of the toughest roads to snowplow in North America. Up to 80 feet of snow can lie at the top of the road and plowing it can take up to ten weeks.

This is a view of Logan Pass from the west side of the road.

That's probably enough for now. Next time I will post pictures of what we saw when we reached the top of the road at Logan Pass.