Marias Pass, Montana, United States
With the Covid-19 plague still ongoing, Glacier National
Park is only partly open this year. The
Blackfoot Reservation which is adjacent to the east side of the park has imposed
a strict lockdown with businesses closed. Deferring to the tribe, the park
service has closed all entrances on the east side of the park, making some of
the best know areas off limits this season.
Thus, I’ve had to plan my hikes around Glacier accordingly this year.
Firebrand Pass is a hike listed in my hiking guidebooks that
also ranks quite high on some other lists of best hikes in the park. Being on
the park’s periphery, accessed from a trailhead along U.S. 2 about five miles
west of East Glacier, it normally gets very low visitation. Thus, it seemed
like a perfect hike this year.
Since I approached the park from the west side, to get to
Firebrand I had to drive U.S. 2 along the park’s southern boundary along the
Middle Fork of the Flathead River and over Marias Pass, at slightly over 5,000
feet much less dramatic than Logan Pass on Going-to-the-Sun Road.
There’s a
monument to Theodore Roosevelt at the top of the pass that I didn’t notice other
times I crossed.
The hike to Firebrand Pass is 10 miles round trip with a
very gradual elevation gain of about 2,000 feet, a much easier hike than I had
expected. The route starts through grassy territory, rises and proceeds through
a long stretch of thick pine forest, and emerges into overgrown brush that you
have to bushwhack your way through, including some tall plants with big
clusters of white flowers I don’t recall seeing last year on any of my hikes in
Glacier. I think they may be yarrow, but I’m not sure. This was where I started
getting scared – prime grizzly country and you can’t see them and they can’t
see you coming to move away. You’re
supposed to make noise to let them know you’re coming so you don’t startle
them. Well, actually you’re also supposed to hike in groups, but that’s not
practical for me. So I sing the song
from the Jungle Book about the “Bare necessities…the simple bear can rest with
these…..” And since I don’t know all the words, I just sing the same few lines
I do know over and over again.
It
apparently works, since I haven’t experienced a bear encounter yet. Or I just yell, “Hey, bear!” at the top of my
lungs every minute or so.
The trail climbs to drier shorter forest and then open
tundra country as it rounds a ridge and heads into an open basin surrounded by
some jagged peaks. The approach to the
pass is surprisingly gradual the whole distance, much like the trail I did last
year in the park to Piegan Pass. And
then when you get to the top, there’s an absolutely knock-your-socks-off view
toward the west to a set of peaks in the southern part of the park.
With an early start and an easier hike than I expected, I
was back at the trailhead quite early. I drove into East Glacier with the hope
that I might find a motel room. Being on or surrounded by the Blackfoot
Reservation, all the businesses except for a gas station were closed. I got a few drinks and an ice cream, and then
a funny thing happened to me outside the station. A big pickup truck carrying
about a half dozen Hutterites pulled up. The men approached a few other people
and then me and asked if I’d be interested in buying some of their homemade
Hutterite wine for only $20/gallon. I
asked about smaller quantities, but gallon jugs were the only size they had,
more than I’d care to consume in a couple sittings before it would go bad in my
hot car.
I followed that with a late afternoon hike to Buffalo Lakes,
outside the park in the national forest but also accessed from U.S. 2 a few
miles west of East Glacier. The views back toward the park are good, but I wasn’t
too impressed with the lakes themselves.
Supposedly a great spot to see moose, most of the wildlife I encountered
along the three-mile round trip trail was of the insect variety.
2025-05-22