Glacier: Aster and Running Eagle Falls

After the half marathon, we headed back to the park to find a couple more waterfalls. Someone at the laundromat had told Mr M about a waterfall that had a second waterfall coming out over it. He couldn’t remember the name, but he remembered the area, so we figured we’d try to find it.

After driving to Two Medicine, we first hiked to Aster falls, which weren’t as impressive as St Mary or Virginia falls, but still nice looking in their own way. I was tired and my foot was hurting so I wasn’t in the mood to be impressed J We did see a moose off in the distance on the way out and again on the way back. That was a bit exciting, since it was our only wildlife sighting in Glacier NP other than lots of chipmunks and ground squirrels.

can you see the moose in the water?

We had planned on doing another hike as well, but my feet were just too sore (my plantar fasciitis had been aggravated by running the half marathon and then hiking another three miles), so we opted to skip that one and go straight to the last falls on the list, one that was just a short hike from the trailhead and was even handicap accessible.

I don’t know that Running Eagle falls are truly accessible, but the first part of the trail is fairly flat and level. Once you get to the river though, the trail is rocky and you have to cross a narrow log bridge to get to the best viewing spot. You can see the falls from the spot where the trail turns from dirt to rock, but it’s not as good a view.

In any case, when the falls came into view, we realized that this was the falls that Mr M had been told about. It really does look like a double waterfall, with one directly above the other. Super cool and not something we’d seen before.

This was a nice short hike, only about a mile round trip.

Back in the parking lot I grabbed a picture of this bus- it's modeled after the original tour buses from the beginning of the park. You see them all over, taking people on tours of the park, but they're only for the paid tours. The free shuttles are boring white vans.