High Altitude Holiday
With summer coming to a close and Labor Day fast approaching, I decided to take advantage of the long holiday weekend my wife would have off work and plan a short trip to Glacier National Park. We had both been to the area before but only during the winter months to visit friends, so we were excited to see what the area had to offer during the summer months. With bags packed full of hiking and fishing gear, we boarded our plane Saturday afternoon en route to Kalispell, Montana
We landed late Saturday night and managed to get a few hours of sleep before the 4am wake up call Sunday morning to try and beat the bus rush. We knew going into this trip that the crowds would play a huge factor in choosing which activities we would partake in. COVID-19 once again limited our options as the whole east side of the park was closed leaving us with only the west side of the park to work with. After throwing together a rough itinerary for the week, our goal for the first day was to hike to Otokomi Lake (Otokomi meaning “Yellow Fish” in Blackfeet) and spend the afternoon fishing and enjoying the scenery. We chose this hike after it was recommended by a few friends of ours that had been just a couple weeks prior. Known for its solitude, the Otokomi trailhead is at the furthest point on the Going to the Sun Road before entering the east side of the park. The one downside to hiking this lesser traveled trail is the increase in bear activity, so we made sure to make lots of noise throughout the duration of the hike.
The 5.5 mile out and back trail gained nearly 2200ft before descending into the valley and reaching the lake. After taking a small trail to the east side of the lake we settled in along a grassy bank and rigged up the fly rod. As I put together my 5wt you could see the fish rising all along the shelf. I started with a simple elk hair caddis, size 16, and began sight casting to cruising trout. After about five minutes I spotted a small trout in the shallows and made a cast three feet from its head, he quickly swam towards the fly and slowly sipped it before I set the hook. The fight was short but I had officially landed my first Yellowstone Cutthroat as well as my first trout in an alpine lake. I continued to wade barefoot along the shoreline and sight cast to eager cutthroat, landing a healthy number in the process. With my fix for trout appeased, Leah and I decided to eat lunch and then spend the rest of the afternoon fishing in an attempt to put my wife on her first Yellowstone Cutthroat. Fishing exclusively dry flies, she was able to catch a few nice fish in the 12-14” range on a small hopper pattern. With another 5.5 miles back to the trailhead we decided to pack up around 2pm and start our hike to the car.
The next morning we were surprised by the 30 degree weather forecast and a chance for snow within the park. Thinking the crowds may be less of an issue, we hit the road around 5am in pursuit of a few waterfalls near Saint Mary Lake. With hopes of catching trout in a handful of the streams below the falls, plans quickly changed once we reached Logan Pass and started to see the snow flurries that would continue to grow over the next couple hours. We sat at the trailhead on the other side of the pass, waiting for the snow to subside, until we were greeted by a park ranger informing us a storm front was on its way, forcing us to head back over the mountain towards the entrance of the park. Bummed by the news, we had a slight sense of relief knowing we didn't have to hike to the falls in the bitterly cold weather. With rangers not allowing visitors up the mountain, we were able to enjoy the snow storm atop Logan Pass with minimal human interference. We worked our way down the mountain towards the west entrance and decided to sight see from the car the remainder of the morning as most of the trails were closed. After lunch we decided to stop at a section known as the Sacred Dancing Cascade right along the road. I spotted a trail on the other side of McDonald Creek that appeared to have little foot traffic so we opted to give it a shot. The easy 1.5 mile hike was completely vacant and led us to some great looking pools above the cascades. With my 5wt in hand, I made a cast towards the back of the pool and watched the Adams dry fly slowly drift back towards me. You could see the small Cuttbows (Rainbow Trout - Cutthroat Trout hybrid) swimming in the deep pool waiting for an easy meal. After a few drifts I was able to hook a small 7-8” fish and continued to pick off fish in various pockets of the pool. Leah was able to land the biggest fish of the day on a small caddis fly in a shallow pool down river, measuring right at 14”. In high spirits we retreated back towards Whitefish for dinner and started planning our last day of the trip.
With a majority of the park still closed due to bad weather, we decided to travel south to Flathead National Forest in an area known as Jewel Basin. Known for its concentration of high altitude lakes, we planned to summit Mt. Aneas and fish some of the lakes below along the rest of the hike. Although strenuous, the hike was very scenic especially on top of the summit. We took some time on the summit for pictures and lunch before working our way down to Picnic Lake. At this point the wind started to pick up significantly making it difficult to see any fish cruising the shallow lake. We continued our hike to twin lakes and yet again we struggled to see any fish swimming the shoreline. While this fishing was uneventful it was still one of our favorite days of the week. With plenty of other beautiful lakes around, we knew it would only be a matter of time before we returned to fish the basin.
Our time in Glacier and Jewel Basin was simple and refreshing. While we had a rough itinerary in place, we had no real motives or objectives holding us to it. While COVID-19 might have ruined summer for a lot of people, I, myself will look back on 2020 and hope to relive much of it again in the future.