Coordination on everyone's part--That's what it took to get 11 gals from five different locations to hook up for a gorgeous fall hike among the larch, and yes, the western larch, also known as tamaracks, put on a glorious golden hue to color our day.

It all started at 5:30 a.m. when the gals from Great Falls headed out for the trip to West Glacier. Despite missing the Valier cut off and travelling 10 minutes out of the way, we made good time and met Laura and Laverne from Alberta, Canada, in East Glacier Park just five minutes past our appointed time;  after a quick stop at the Two Medicine Grill for some drinks, we messaged the gals from Kalispell, Essex and Eureka to say we were on our way, 55 minutes from West Glacier.

Despite some slow construction zones, we arrived at West Glacier within our 9-9:15 a.m. meet time, and all except one gal were already there, so we headed to the trailhead and started our hike at 9:35. (The other gal had cancelled and told one of the others).

The day was gorgeous from the start with a soft mist hanging low along the trunks of the golden larch and bright green young lodge pole pines, which were rejuvenating the area after the 2003 Roberts Fire. As we climbed, the views of the larch looked like waves of yellow among the lime greens of the firs and pines and the sienna browns of frozen ferns.

We saw moose tracks on the trail and looked down on ponds hoping to spy one, but no luck. However, we did see a deer at the lookout tower.

A few of the gals were wondering if they were in shape for the uphill, but all 11 did make it and in pretty good time although we did rest quite a bit.  We arrived in under three hours and spent 40 minutes on top, enjoying the far-reaching, panorama views with our lunch. The vistas didn't disappoint: we saw deep into Glacier: the Garden Wall, Mount Gould, Clements, Reynolds, Heaven's Peak, Stanton and Cannon to name a few. Of course, Lake McDonald provided the best foreground to the mountains, with its deep blue surface and its shores painted golden with larch. And an amazing thing is that we didn't have any wind, so the 45-degree weather almost felt balmy. And another amazing thing is that we had Glacier to ourselves! Between the views and the peaceful solitude, we left the top reluctantly at 1:18 p.m.

The walk down and back to the cars took two hours. On our return, we came across four other parties on their way up, and we all said how lucky we were to have had the time at top without anyone else around.

For flowers, we were surprised to find a few survivors: pearly everlasting, harebells, and goldenrod. However, with all of the seeded fireweed, we imagine the hills are alive in pink earlier in the year.

At the parking area, we said our goodbyes: Jackie and Madelon heading back to Eureka, Tracy to Kalsipell, Marta to Essex, Laura and Laverne to Canada, and Cathy, Kathy, Katie, Mary and Gail to dinner at the Lighthouse in Valier and then on to Great Falls. We arrived home at 8:30 p.m., a half hour sooner than we expected.

A side note on Valier:  the bartender-owner of the Lighthouse was a wood carver and had made a unique cowboy chess set as well as several other figurines. He showed us pictures of some of the statues he had commissioned around the state. His work was on display in a glass case between the restaurant and bar.

Who went: Laura and Laverne (Canada); Jackie and Madelon (Eureka); Tracy (Kalispell). Marta (Essex), Cathy, Kathy D, Gail, Mary and Katie (Great Falls).

Battling 85-mile-an-hour winds on the drive up, Susan did an awesome job navigating around herds of tumbleweeds, crossing the road, flooring the gas only to find she could only go 55 against head winds on the Valier cut-off, and holding the wheel steady on the crosswind-gusts as we turned toward Browning.

We never thought we would be so eager to get to a town, but when we pulled into the Browning Town Pump, we were all ready for a break from the hairy driving. It was a challenge getting out of the doors, one at a time, holding the door so the wind wouldn't whip it off.  Despite the wind, the weather was very sunny.

From there on into Two Medicine, the winds weren't so terrible; however, we faced a wall of clouds against the mountains, which produced some rain and a bit of sleet.  Along the way, we were treated to the sight of stampeding herds of buffalo that looked just like we imaged they would when they free-roamed the plains. The wind and weather must have been disturbing them. The other animals we encountered were all huddled together in corners of fences, their rears toward the oncoming wind. In addition to these scenic animals, the mountains had a dusting of white from the night before. And we saw many, many rainbows, so the trip to get to Glacier was quite eventful.

The drive took us an extra 45 minutes due to the winds, so we were late meeting up with our West-side friends Joan and Marta, who had to get back early, so we started the hike, all bundled up against the spitting-sleet wind, but they quickly had to outpace us to meet their time constraints of getting back to the cars by 4:00 p.m. (We finished an hour later at 5:05.)

Yes, we were bundled up, but after we got into the trees, we stripped layers as the hiking warmed us quickly. The ground cover was quite a display with rosebushes and huckleberries in red, spiraea in yellow and orange, golden cottonwoods and aspen as well as  lime green mountain maple, all contrasting with bright green beargrass.

Besides the gorgeous fall colors, the views were spectacular, especially of Siinopah and Pompelly's Pillar all the way until we reached the emerald-colored No Name Lake. The lake had  what appeared to be a  pair of golden eye ducks on it, the male sleeping with his head under his wing. Besides the ducks, we didn't see any other wildlife; however, we did see elk, moose, sheep sign and tracks as well as bear scat.

The whole day, threatening clouds swirled overhead as winds whipped the water into whitecaps on Two Medicine Lake as well as No Name.  In addition, the gusts were so fierce over Two Medicine that they actually blew spray into the air. 

Interestingly, we heard was seemed to be two gunshots toward the direction of Two Med lake about three miles into our hike. When we asked some other hikers, they thought it was falling rock; however, no shale or other rocks falling or tumbling sounds were heard, so we didn't think that could be the explanation. It made us nervous to go on for a minute.

After we ended our hike, we decided to hit the Two Medicine Grill, as we were all famished and didn't want to wait until Valier or Dupuyer to eat.  The waitress was a bit cranky and very slow to clear a table and take our order, but the cook was fast and apologized to us for the delay.  Katie had to order some triple berry and blackberry pie-for-strength to go.

Then it was time to head for home. We all felt a bit hypothermic, so we  turned the car heat up full blast as we headed into Browning, where we took a short stop to stretch our legs after a long hike.

We ended our day at 9 p.m. Susan was so happy that the winds had died down significantly for the drive home. What a great "goodbye to Glacier" end-of-season hike!