Grinnell Glacier Hike

Beating the sun up is easy out here. We were inside the park headed for Many Glacier Lake before the sun broke the horizon. But when it did it was spectacular. As we started our hike to Grinnell glacier this morning, we went through a beautiful trail winding among aspen and fir trees. When an opening in the trees came there would be a magnificent view. We were the first on the trail and we had been informed to not surprise any bears. Duh, that was on the top of our list. We were told that every hundred or so feet we were to make loud noise. That was easy for us(me). As ancient and decrypted hikers we were soon over taken by some college boys, no longer did we have to be loud they did a superior job of that. The trail passed by 4 different lakes, two had shuttle boats on them(they were not operating when we went by). No way I can describe our views. The trail, only climbed about 2000', but was not difficult at all. At one point, glacial melt showered the trail on the edge of a "nice" bluff. Coming back through this area we were able to spot a moose about 150 yards from the trail. One point we saw a heard of big horn sheep about a mile away then as we arrived at the glacier the big horns were making their way across a small glacier. I plan to report them since the park has made it well know that we are to stay off the glaciers. When we stopped for lunch we were "blessed"pestered would be a better term, by mountain squirrels. I actually used my pole on one to keep him out of our food. He obviously did not know that food is one of my priorities.