I’ve Hiked in Glacier National Park Multiple Times. This Time, I Explored by Water.

The trout stayed in the river. My guide removed the hook underwater and released it quickly, without lifting it into the air for a photograph. I had just learned to catch a fish on a fly rod, and watching the care taken to let it go was as satisfying as catching it.

I’ve visited Glacier National Park multiple times. On this return, I stayed in a cabin in West Glacier and made time for the Flathead River, learning to fly-fish and paddling through whitewater. I still drove on Going-to-the-Sun Road and stopped at Lake McDonald, but the river days gave me a different view of a place I already loved.