The Highline Trail, in Glacier National Park, begins at Logan Pass and extends for many miles to the north, skirting along near the top of the west face of the ridge on the Continental Divide. In the past, including when Dennis and I hiked it on this trip in 1978, your reward after a six mile hike along the trail was a piece of pie at the Granite Park Chalet, an inn and restaurant run by the park service accessible only on foot. Alas the chalets were shut down some years back, so now you'll just have to settle for the views.

 

And they are spectacular. The first view is not far from the trailhead at Logan Pass, looking back to the Hanging Garden.

The big, fat squirrel-like animal in the picture is a marmut, a giant rodent that lives only near to or above the tree line, which the Highline Trail bobs above and below as it winds along the face of the ridge.

Haystack Butte forms a saddle on the Highline Trail about half-way between Logan Pass and Granite Park Chalet. I have spotted big horn sheep several times in this area over the years. The sheep and the mountain goats in the park have learned to not fear humans; they will often walk nonchalantly within a few yards of you.

Lake McDonald is one of a series of long, narrow lakes that penetrate fjord-like into the mountains west of the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park. The Going to the Sun Road, which tranverses the park east-west and crosses the divide at Logan Pass, follows the southern shore of the lake before twisting up the face of the Garden Wall ridge to Logan Pass. Just before you reach the Granite Park Chalet on the HIghline Trail a gap, through which McDanald Creek flows down to the lake, opens up to a vista down the length of the lake.