Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!

We spent Day 4 of our Montana trip with Glacier Guides and Montana Raft Company. In the morning, we had hiked to Avalanche Lake inside the park (read about that here.) In the afternoon, we regrouped at the Glacier Guides headquarters in West Glacier. There, we met up with our guide Ryan for a scenic float trip on the Flathead River.

The Middle Fork of the Flathead River forms the 92-mile Southern boundary of Glacier National Park and the Northern boundary of Flathead National Forest. Congress designated the Flathead as a National Wild and Scenic River in 1976.

The pure waters provide a haven for native Bull and Cutthroat Trout. The colorful rocks found here and around Glacier National Park are called Argillite. They range in color from red to green, depending on the heat and pressure that formed them.

We shared a raft with another family from Los Angeles. The rafts floated peacefully downstream, while we admired the scenery and conversed with our raftmates.

We put in around West Glacier where the river was wide open. As we traveled downstream, canyon walls rose up dramatically around us.

We landed about 5 miles south of where we’d started, by the Blankenship Bridge.

Location: West Glacier, Montana
Designation: National Forest, Wild and Scenic River
Date designated/established: 1976
Date of my visit: June 25, 2018