High line Trail

I think the High Line Trail is perhaps the most commented on, part of Glacier Park next to the Going to the Sun Road. They parallel each other for quite a long distance.

I had actually looked at the trail with some trepidation since it is the highest hiking trail in the Park, and I worried about being in good enough shape, especially knees. In actuality the Hidden Lake trail was the worst one that I walked on in the entire park. However none of the trails that we did was all that bad.

The parking at the top of the pass is always crowded and waiting room only for parking. We decided to leave our car at the boat launch and catch the shuttle to the top, and do it pretty early in the morning so that heat would not be a problem.

The one thing that I did not count on was the flowers. I have never seen so many varieties of flowers in my life. I have made little or no effort to name them, so you are on your own. I intended to just document the trail, and the surrounding Mountains, but as you will see soon gave up mountains for flowers. It was doubly difficult as my Canon is aging and sometimes has difficult in remaining focused. A bit like the owner of it. All could have been better in focus, but even so as a hike, it was the most flowery one that I have ever taken.

I have to admit that Connie was the driving factor on all of these hikes. I cautioned against over extending, she was raring to go. I think we reached a good compromise on all of them, and she is tougher than I had thought.

The trail is cut into the rock and is about a yard wide most of the places. A cable is run through garden hoses to give a good gripping safety cable if one needs one. I think we only saw one gal that was having trouble with the height.

At about this point I began noticing the different flowers, and thus began a noticeable slowing of progress since every new step revealed a flower that I had never seen before.

With the little nipple in the middle I thought they had been misnamed. :-/

These beauties are Bear Grass. It is so white that it appears phosphorescent when they are back in the Spruce trees. They are every where at the highest altitude.

This Hoary Marmot is not eating the flowers, merely the grass that is growing within it.

This one Connie calls- a Mouse on a stick. Don't know what its real name is , but its weird.

In my preparation for this trip I watched a lot of you tube videos about the different trails and I was concerned that it might be a pretty tough hike, but found that it was the most pleasant and beautiful hike of all.