Our final day at Glacier was spent at Two Medicine. This is a separate part in the south of the park. I did like this area because it was a little less crowded. Our first stop was the Running Eagle Falls.
This short half mile hike took us to this amazing little waterfall. The water literally flowed out of the mountain. The river is above the mountain and then flows down through this natural land bridge making it look like an underground waterfall. When the water is running really high, water falls from the top of the land bridge as well giving it a double waterfall look.
This area was very pretty. The rushing water mixed with the calm pools below and the trees and grass surrounding the river gave us a very serene place to sit and relax. While relaxing on the bank of the river, Colby decided to jump in the water just to see what it was like. He said it was cold but still nice to wade in. I wouldn't let him jump off the cliff into the river though because I didn't know what the undercurrents were like. Some of the other kids also stuck their feet in the water too.
After seeing the Running Eagle Falls, we walked back to the vehicles. On our way, we took a little detour and walked along the Nature Trail.
While we walked through this Nature Trail, we learned a lot about the plants and trees growing in this area. I liked reading about the plants and identifying the different characteristics of each of them.
At the picnic area we ate lunch before heading to another longer hike.
We decided to do the Aster Falls hike which was pretty flat and family friendly. This hike was about 2.5 miles round trip and went through the forest. Our first stop was a lookout point on the Two Medicine Lake.
This was really beautiful. The wildflowers were also in bloom and we were able to walk through meadows of them on our way to the lake. The purple flowers were some of our favorites. The kids loved throwing rocks in the lake and seeing how many skips they could get out of a single throw.
After the lake lookout, we got back onto the trail and continued on to the Falls. We almost missed the turn off to the Aster Falls but luckily we heard the rushing water. Aster Falls were incredible!
We hung out here for a while and let everyone soak their feet in the cool water. It felt really good! Logan found a cool log that looked like a trident. Colby crossed the river and hiked up and around the waterfall to see it from the top. The rest of us decided that the easier way to the top of the waterfall would be to get back on the trail and follow it up and around. So that is what we did. However, we missed the turn off somewhere and kept climbing up and up. The trail got really steep and turned into windy switchbacks. We realized we must have missed the turn off but Emily and I were determined to see where the trail led. We continued on for a steep mile or so until we got to the end of the trail. At the end was this amazing overlook of the entire Two Medicine Park.
This was the Aster Park Overlook. Emily and I did not realize that all of the other adults had turned back and headed down the mountain when it got steep. At the top, however, it was just Emily, me and the kids! Those kids were troopers and just kept climbing. Emily packed Brooklyn on her back piggyback style the whole way up. The view from the top really made the hike worth it. We could see for miles. The ground at the top was covered in rocks so we made a cairn to prove that we were there. Ezra and Kari were obsessed with all of the flat rocks up there. They knew the flatter the rock, the better it will skip across the water so they were determined to bring these flat rock down to the lake to skip them. They filled their pockets and backpacks with rocks to take with them. Emily and I both warned them that the rocks were going to be too heavy to carry down the mountain and that we had a long ways to walk before we got to the lake. They were undeterred though. They were bringing those rocks. We wished them luck and we all started down the mountain to catch up with the others.
We hiked and hiked with the kids and slowly made it down the mountain. We were able to find the actual turn off to see the top of the Aster Fall and it was cool but kind of anticlimactic after seeing the view from the overlook. We continued walking rocks and all. Along the way we saw bull moose wading in the little lake along the trail. It was too far away to get a good picture but it was fun to watch him eat and shake his big head as it came out of the water.
Finally we caught up with the rest of the group just before reaching the end of the trail. We all walked back to the trail head and the parking lot together. At the parking area, we laid out on the edge of the lake and soaked our feet again. The water was so beautiful.
Kari and Ezra emptied their pockets and backpacks and started skipping the coveted flat stones. Yes they did make excellent skipping rocks so to them it was worth the haul. The water in the lake was so clear and blue you could see all of the colorful rocks on the bottom of the lake. It was a rainbow of rocks of every shade.
On the way back to the camp, we stopped at a little shop and got some Huckleberry Bear Claws! They were really overpriced but so good!
Back at camp, we all got together for our final night and had a big dinner.
The kids all hung out playing night games while we sat around the fire chatting and telling "Your Mama" jokes. Don't ask me why we were doing that but it was pretty funny. None of us wanted to leave but sadly the camp quiet hours finally made it so we had to. We have had so much fun being together in beautiful Glacier National Park. What a exciting trip it has been!
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