Our goal today was to leave the RV park by 7am, and we were only 9 minutes past that goal! However, it turns out that we should have left even earlier. It took quite a while to get through the West entrance into GNP, and once we arrived at the Trail of Cedars / Avalanche Lake trailhead, all parking was completely full. We had to drive 1.5 miles away before we found a spot, making our long hike of the day even longer. But everyone had such a great attitude about the 1.5 mile warmup walk! We were able to visit restrooms before starting the Trail of Cedars loop.
We did this loop last time and it’s super short and family friendly – 0.8 miles, all shaded and cool among many kinds of large, beautiful trees. What we did not do last time was the Avalanche Lake trail, which starts halfway through Trail of Cedars. This hike was labeled “moderate” and had a 750 feet climb in elevation, being over 4 miles round trip. We told our parents they could skip or stop or handle it however they wanted – they were such troopers and did the entire thing with us!
This ended up being our one and only hike of the day and it was absolutely worth it. Although we didn’t get to the Johns Loop like we wanted to, and weren’t able to stop at Lake McDonald Lodge, we were all SO glad that we made the trek to Avalanche Lake. It’s a must-hike, must-do, must-see trail! And truly, the steepness didn’t seem that bad. It was spread out across the two mile ascent, and seemed smoother and easier than many other shorter hikes we’ve done before.
We all exclaimed once we reached the lake – we were so glad to have finally arrived! The water was so clear and blue, and 3/4 kids instantly removed their socks and shoes to wade out in it. We enjoyed snacks and took some pictures, and sat enamored with the mountains, waterfalls and lake.
On the way down, Nick and the boys took off at a faster pace so they could get the car and come pick up the rest of us so we could skip the 1.5 mile trek to where we parked. However, it took us longer than we expected to get down the mountain, and we had trouble finding Nick once we arrived. By this point I was getting nervous the guys would miss their guided fly fishing trip that was scheduled to start at 2pm.
We managed to load up and get out of the park and make it to the guided tour shop about 20 minutes late. Once we were out of GNP, I got service and called to let them know we were running late – they said it was fine so the guys still made the fishing trip!
Nammaw, Honey, the girls and I loaded into one car and drove just a mile down the road to our RV park, where we ate lunch (the guys ate our picnic lunch in the car en route to their fishing trip). I took the girls swimming which was very refreshing after such a long hike.
Nammaw then gathered her stuff for a tea party, which we all enjoyed – English breakfast tea with toffee milk chocolate cookies. Then I took the girls back to the playground area for a while and they enjoyed playing with friends their ages for a bit before dinner.
The guys finished their fly fishing trip with Beau catching 6 and Behr catching 1 – they enjoyed it and said they learned a lot!
Nick smoked a pork the night before that was super tender and shredded this morning before we left for the park. We reheated it tonight and ate it with BBQ sauce on tortillas or buns with leftover salad from last night and lime seasoned chips. It was yummy and will be added to our rotation list for RV meals! I’ll plan to make a coleslaw with it next time.
jami lee gainey 