I need a Thesarus to find synonyms for spectacular in every sense of the word. Saturday dawned cold and clear, not a cloud in a deep blue sky. As the sun rose the weather warmed to the mid 70’s and we headed out to spend the day in Glacier. We entered the park and set out on the Going to the Sun road. It is a marvel of engineering which takes you deep into the mountains and gives amazing views of the glaciers and gorgeous lakes. There are a number of hikes that we were interested in with trailheads off of the road. We had planned on the Hidden Lake trail but arrived at the Logan Pass parking lot to find it jammed like Christmas at the mall parking lot!
We quickly rethought our plans and decided on the St. Mary’s Waterfall hike with an extended trail to the Virginia waterfall. Turned out to be a great decision. The path was beautiful, a soft mountain path through towering pines and birch, crossing briskly flowing streams and being rewarded with astounding views of the waterfalls. St. Mary’s was beautiful, but the extra hike to Virginia was the real payoff, it is a cascade descending the mountain side in a series of roaring, crashing falls which play into the St. Mary River in an amazing glacial blue color. In a deep pool at the base of the falls big trout teased the anglers unable to drop a line.
We wanted to take a look at the Many Glaciers Campground which has the reputation of being full of bears, grizzly as well as black. We headed deep into the park on relatively untraveled roads and were rewarded with an amazing view of the Grinnell Glacier and the lakes which surround it. We were doing our best to see some wildlife today and thought we had a sighting when dark lumps appeared on a distant shore, only to turn out to be range cows!!!!
However, shortly up the road near the Many Glacier Hotel a ranger was standing with a few people intently looking up the side of the mountain. We pulled over, grabbed binoculars and cameras and were rewarded with the sight of a HUGE black bear grazing and roaming the hillside. We were a long way from him and he still looked HUGE!
Luanne has not gotten her moose sighting and really doesn’t want to go back to Illinois never having seen a moose. Diane wants to take her to a petting zoo! We’re going back to the park tomorrow and try again!
The wifi at our otherwise wonderful Glacier Meadows campground leaves a lot to be desired and I can’t get pictures uploaded. I’ll try with my hotspot tomorrow to get some shots up.
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