Glacier through Sy's eyes

Sy wrote up this great summary of our past weekend/vacation. Rather than write my own version, here's hers:

Hello All, I thought I would write you a summary of my weekend in Glacier National Park. I wish I had photos to accompany, but since my camera hasn't moved into the digital age yet, you will have to wait for the film to be developed and then for me to scan them in. We left for Glacier at 9:00 AM on Saturday. Kevin says its a five hour drive. I'm guessing that it took us closer to 6 or so since we didn't arrive till after 5 PM. But, it is hard to tell because we did stop for lunch and at a vinyard on the banks of Flathead Lake. I think the highlight of the vinyard stop for Kevin was the winetasting. I, however, enjoyed watching the hummingbirds at the feeder outside the window much more than the wine. Kevin actually purchased a bottle of the one I liked the least without realizing it. Oh, well. He can drink and enjoy. We find our campsite. I should clarify what is meant by camping here. We are using Kevin's definition which involves tons of food distributed between 2 coolers and a bed in the back of the pick-up. One campsite actually classified us as an RV! The only thing missing was the bathroom and the sink. On the way back from paying the campground fee, there is a mule deer doe walking through the campsite next to ours happily munching on the plants. In back of the campground is a hike and since it's close and our legs are cramped, we decide to see what its about. This hike is nice and flat -- one of two in the park that are wheelchair accessible, called Trail of the Cedars. It winds its way along the Avalanche Creek underneath a beautiful cedar canopy. At the far end, is Avalanche Gorge through which the creek plummets down. The hike is meant to be a loop, but the other side is closed for repair. Right before the gorge is the trailhead that leads to Avalanche Lake. About the time we reach the gorge, the thunder starts, so back to the truck we go. The rain starts before we reach the truck and lasts a good while, though I really don't know how long. After the rain stops, we make dinner. Only to realize our packing error -- we have no pan to wash the dishes in. Oops. We manage with some cold water for the night and fix this problem tomorrow. Sunday dawns early, even with mountains surrounding the campsite. The one to the East looks like a vertical rock wall. I was thinking that rockclimbing would abound in the park after looking at that wall. But, it turns out that most of the rock in the park is not strong enough to hold a bolt and thus, there is very little climbining in the park. Kev and I begin the morning by heading up the 2 mile hike (one way) to Avalanche Lake. For the most part, the hike parallels the creek but not always. With all the trees, it was very hard to tell at most points. At the beginning of the hike (as with all hikes in the park) there is a reminder to watch out for bears and that our safety is not guaranteed. Glacier has the most bears per area of anywhere in the lower 48 states. But, even with that, we never saw one. The hike was beatiful but the lake at the end was greater. Imagine a bowl made out of mountains with one end sawn off. This end, of course, is where the creek flows out of the bowl. However, flowing down the mountains and into the bowl at the other end are no less than 5 waterfalls. The noise from them was amazing. I tried to get photos but my camera couldn't capture all 5 at once. Kev and I proceeded to walk along the shore of the lake. The water is amazingly clear and there was no wind. About 1/2 way down the edge, there was a family of ducks. They were fun to watch because the kept diving and popping back up on the surface. At the far end, an older man and a boy were fishing and another young couple were sitting and eating lunch. All of them were unaware of the deer walking through the creek feeding the lake about 20 ft behind them as we walked up. We also got a picture of a chipmunk sniffing my boot. He was a very curious and fearless little guy. After we returned to the campground and ate lunch, we set off to find something we could heat water in so that we could wash the dishes. We found some cheap alluminium roasting pans in West Glacier. West Glacier is a funny town -- it consists of a couple of gift shops, a restaraunt, a gas station, and a motel located at the west entrance of the park. And that's it as far as we can tell. Our purchase made, we head back into the park and decide to drive along Going-to-the-Sun road. This is the only road through the park. At its highest point, 6440 ft, is Logan's Pass. The road to it is cut into the side of the mountain with just barely enough room for two cars side-by-side. Mom would have had an all out panic attack going up it, Kevin and I were close. In places, it looked like the road had just fallen off the side. These were under construction and only one lane. The entire road is actually going through a 10 year renovation, so I am not sure that the road just fell or was removed. Either way, it was not reassuring. The view along the way is spectacular. There is also a stretch of the road known as the Weeping Wall. Here, the water flows over the wall onto the road. Logan's Pass is the start of some hikes. The shortest of which leads to a place called Hidden Lake. Reassuringly, the lake and a bit of its feeder streams are all closed due to bear activity. Undaunted, Kevin and I start on the way. However, since we had not planned on hiking, we didn't bring any water, and therefore didn't hike the entire length. From people who have done the hike before, I believe we made it about 3/4 a mile or about 1/2 way there. Now, we are at 6440 ft and heading upward during this hike. The snow has not all melted along the trail and is slippery and mushy to say the least. Astoudingly, given these conditions, there were still girls doing the hike in flip-flops!!! Kev and I make it back to the parking lot just in time to see a mother and baby Mountain Goat wander through. Rather than continue Eastward over the pass, Kev and I turn back and head back down the way we came up. That night, there is a talk in the campground by a park service employee about how the animals adapt to living in the park. I don't think the talk really covered that so much. But, we did find out that on the western edge of the park, there is a place called the goat lick. This is a natural mineral (salt) deposit that the goats wander down of the mountains to eat from. Neither of us wanted to brave the road through the park again, so the next day, we decide to travel around the park, past the goat lick (where we did see some goats). This drive was pretty and went up over another pass called Marias Pass. It is at 5220 ft -- over 1000 ft less then the other. It has alot of historical significance because it is so low -- the railroads wanted it for obvious reasons. The drive was beatiful and, with the exception of the stupid drivers around us, uneventful. We arrived at St. Mary's on the Eastern side of the park in time for lunch. Then we took a boat ride on St. Mary's Lake. This was neat and informative. The guide said that the red rock at the top of the mountains was -- I forget the type, but made up of essentially dried, rusted, mud which is why it won't take the mountain climbing supports. He also said it would be extemely fragile -- breakable with your hand. Part of the boat trip was a stop, inolving a short hike, to see some waterfalls. Along the way, I found some of this red rock. I couldn't break it nor Kevin. We took it back to the guide. He sais we had a faulty sample! That night, we stayed in another portion of the park called Many Glacier. It is slightly more north and close to the canadian border. We had hoped to see some big horned sheep, but did not. The next day, we did hike around Swiftcurrent Lake. Along the way, there was a snowshoe rabbit. We got some pics of him and walked bye without him really even twitching. Considering we were within about 2 ft, that is pretty impressive. On the far side of the lake (from where we started) is Many Glacier Hotel. Over a slight ridge, is another lake, Lake Josephine. I wanted to see this lake. But, we couldn't find the trail. We did find a service drive that went in the right direction so we took that. After a slight scramble to the top, we found a patch of rocks with a silver medalion hooked onto them saying we had officially made the summit. Kevin and I may have climbed the shortest mountain in the park, but we made it to the top!!! The way home was long. It's hightlight was a bulldozer that took a left in front of us and proceeded to take its leisurely time doing so. Meanwhile, we were doing 70 mph right at it. That got the adrenaline going. There were also some beatiful fields covered in a fuscia flowers of an unknown variety. Pictures to follow. In the meantime, check out this for a preview. http://www.nps.gov/glac/gallery/parkpics.htm Sy