Gonig-to-the-Sun Glacier National Park

9/7/2008 - Glacier National Park
We got to West Glacier and the West Glacier campground around 4:30 pm yesterday. It was a long day and after posting the blog, went to bed. The camp ground is very nice, stone pebbles for the MH pad and grass for the people spaces. Everything here is very clean and very well maintained. If anyone is looking for a place to camp or rent a cabin, this might be a good choice.

On to Glacier National Park this morning. What can I say wow, Wow and again WOW. Each park seems to get better and better and Glacier National Park is not the exception. The views in the park are magnificent to say the least.

Today we started off driving along the "Going-to-the-Sun" road. Drove from West Glacier to St. Mary on the east side of the park. Stopped at many of the vista overlooks and did some hiking to waterfalls, lakes, and other viewpoints. Every turn just brought another spectacular view, sometimes the same mountain or view, but different. It's hard to explain without seeing the lighting and shadowing. Anyway we took about 1100 pictures throughout the day and went through three sets of batteries in Carmen's camera and two in my camera. Thanks to rechargeable batteries and the 4gb disk for my camera and the 2gb for Carmen's camera. At least we did not have to download pictures to the computer during the day.

There are two lakes in the park along the road. Both are about 8-10 miles long! Again providing magnificent views of the mountains with the lakes in the foreground. We hiked several trails. We saw two waterfalls and got some good pictures (well good until I get a chance to look at them). We also hiked the trail behind the Logan Pass Visitor Center. That hike is about 1.8 miles; up hill both ways I might add. Just kidding, the trail is mostly boardwalk and natural terrain. The vistas from this trail are difficult to describe, but just let me tell you they are absolutely magnificent. At the end of the trail is an elevated view of "Hidden Lake" surrounded by mountains and glaciers. Fantastic!

Saw our first sighting of the big horn sheep, in Glacier NP, at the end of this trail. There were two of them, both males, but they were so far away and I did not bring my long zoom lens with me. That's one lesson I will not forget! We used Carmen's camera and I think when I enlarge the picture enough you will make out the animals. The other sighting was a lone big horn sheep, again male. It wasn't as far away, but far enough and it was late and the exposure slow, so not sure how good the pictures will look.

Back to the mountains. Did I mention how fantastic they are? They really are indescribable. However, I am going to try and select a picture that will hopefully provide a good representation for your viewing enjoyment. (Marsha, I think I will start sending you a picture of the day again. You can pass them on.)

It did seem that we drove in the right direction for the sun and shadows on the mountains (West to East). You couldn't ask for better sun and shadowing. Oh, the sun was out all day, with a few clouds here and there. It rained after we were almost to St. Mary and stopped shortly afterwards. That was when we saw the bear. It was in a field a good 1000 yards from the road. A long way even with the zoom lens. But with the sun having set and a long exposure time, not sure how good they will be. It did seem that the animals today were very far away or late in the evening requiring long exposure times.

Today we saw deer (finally, a nice 8 point buck), mountain goats, big horn sheep (far away and not sure how good the pictures came out), marmot, several high altitude squirrels (at least that is what I think they were), and a bear.

The trip There and Back Again (subtle reference there) took all day. We left around 8:00AM and returned around 8:30PM. Long day with all the hiking and in and out of the car to take pictures.


Carmen says: in all it was a great day, the black bear was far away but I could see him with the naked eye and that was exciting. As for our hike at Logan Pass Vistor Center it was all up hill to the area we were heading to and of course being in higher altitude, picture stops every other minute. It took a while to get there and we met a young couple from Memphis and we stuck together taking pictures of each other and he took as many pictures as Bob did but he remembered to bring his big lens.

We also met a couple from New Hampshire on the drive. They were heading to Banff and Lake Louise.

Right now we are going to figure out where we are going hiking.