Trip Report: Saturday-Great Bear Wilderness and Glacier Nat'l Park

This weekend my wife, a friend, and I headed west to the Great Bear Wilderness and Glacier National Park for some hiking, fishing, and camping. We set off Saturday morning bright and early to arrive at the mountains by lunchtime. After some quick sandwiches my friend and I wet our lines in Bear Creek while the wife read a book. I plucked a few little brookies out of the first pool and a few more out of the next. My final count at Bear Creek numbered eleven.

We wanted to get a good hike in so we only fished for about 20 minutes. We got back in the car and headed deeper into the mountains. After a short period we pulled over to a waterfall for some pictures.

Don't be deceived. This cascade looked small but after climbing it I can tell you it just keeps going. We climbed it in search of a fabled lake brimming with fish, but our attempt fell short. After about 2000' of climbing we decided to head back down and look for an easier lake to fish.

As tired as we were after this we resigned ourselves to checking out a few pull offs and heading to Lake McDonald to set up camp. After procuring firewood and setting up we went for a short hike around the lake. We brought our fly rods just in case and happened to run into a tiny little creek. We each pulled a few little Westslope Cutthroat trout out of the trickle. Knowing that we planned to fish the Middle Fork of the Flathead River in the morning made it a little easier to part with the little stream, so after minimal exploration we headed back to make a fire, roast some brats, and hit the sleeping bag.