Day 14 – Rain and Snow

There was rain, sleet, wind, and believe it or not, snow at elevations not too much higher than we are.  Certainly not good hiking conditions so we took a road trip.  My brand spankin’ new Garmin GPS went black a day ago.  There’s NO WAY I’m going to rely on Kathy’s map reading skills for the next month and a half so I went in search of a replacement.  Closest town that might fill my need is Kalispell, MT just over the mountain.  Problem is, that road is closed due to the fire so we have to go around Glacier NP.  It’s about a 150 mile trip each way.  Oh well, it’s crappy weather anyway and we’d just sit in the RV all day.  I found a Cabela’s in Kalispell and they had what I needed.  My shopping was complete.

But wait…this town has a quilt shop!  Imagine that.  So after a lunch at a local eatery, Kathy guides me to Glacier Quilts.

Funny how she has an issue directing me to a town, but has no problem finding all the alleys to get to a quilt shop.

It was a big store with lots of stuff.  This is going to take a while.

I noticed some of the wall hangings.  I thought they were real nice.

This one gets my “best of show” for some reason.

Look at this, an Edyta Sitar design!  One of Kathy’s idols.

After I chatted with another husband in the store for maybe 30 minutes and then went and had a telephone chat with my mother for another 20 minutes, Kathy finished shopping and we were on our way back to the east side of Glacier.

It’s partly cloudy and clear over on the west side of the park.

Based on the smoke we had a day ago and the news reports, you’d think the whole park was on fire, but that’s not the case.  While there are some large fires, it’s just a drop in the bucket for the millions of acres here.  We saw lots of greenery.

We passed the west entrance to the park and pulled into the little village there.

We saw that there was an Alberta, Canada travel office there and I need a map to get me through the next leg of the trip.  Got the map and a bunch of advice from the agent there.

Sounds like the smoke and fires in Canada may be even worse than we have here.  Oh well.

We continued on our way through the southern part of the park along US-2.  Everything is still green here too.

It’s a scenic drive and much more wooded than the rugged terrain near where we are camped at St. Mary.  We did pass one small fire, perhaps 10 acres or so on a hillside, and saw a chopper with a water bucket in the air.  Outside of that, we didn’t see any other evidence of fires.

Back on the east side and approaching St. Mary, the weather is completely different.  It’s 20 degrees colder and still raining a little now and then.

Last night’s snow fall is apparent.

Then like magic, the clouds parted and it actually warmed up a degree or two.  The sun on the mountains was beautiful.

After two days of low clouds, rain, drizzle, and smoke haze, this was a welcome sight.

So that was a day.  Not the original plan, but we’re re-equipped and ready for more of the Glacier experience.  Low tonight is forecast at 35°.  No need to get going all that early.  We’ll let it warm up to at least 40°.

Tomorrow is the area called “Many Glacier”.

PS:  These postings are a couple days behind and it isn't likely to improve quite yet.  Internet is spotty at best.  The last two posts occurred beginning about 4:30 am local time.  That's not going to happen very often...I do sleep now and then.  Hope you're enjoying the journey.

Stay tuned.

Day 13 – Glacier National Park

Better grab another cup of coffee and use the rest room.  This post is going to take a while to get through.

We’re finally about to enter one of the primary destinations of our 2 month journey…Glacier National Park.

Today, we’re entering the park from the east at the St. Mary entrance and will climb the “Going to the Sun Road” to Logan’s Pass which is as far as we can go due to the fires on the western side of the park.  Fortunately, we were in West Glacier last year but weren’t able to get onto this route because of snow.

We begin the trek to the top.

These waterfalls coming off the sides of the mountains are everywhere.

The next few shots show the fog and haze we had.  I wasn’t sure this would be worth the effort today, given the conditions.

Some of the haze is from the smoke of the forest fires.  We can smell the smoke although it isn’t overpowering.

At one point we travel through the mountainside.

In the distance is another waterfall on the side of a mountain.

We arrive at today’s first activity…the Logan Pass visitor center…

…and a hike to Hidden Lake

There’s a bear warning here but I think, lots of people walking the trail, should be no problem.

We begin our ascent UP the mountain.  As I recall, we needed to gain about 500 ft. in elevation on this little outing.

This part of the trail is boardwalk, but I’ll guarantee that the stair risers don’t meet the building code.  They were quite tall.

Yes, that’s snow on the cloudy mountain.  We continue on as Kathy gets a little ahead of me…which will be an important point later.

The wild flowers are pretty.  I think it’s Spring here going on Winter.

As a matter of fact, Kathy just read me a notice from the weather service of a winter weather advisory for up to 8” of snow in West Glacier tonight.  That could get interesting.

Anyway, we continue along and pass dozens of these little runs of water running down the hills.

Now for one of the high points of the day…We spot a grizzly bear and a cub.

These shots are with a very long telephoto lens so I’d say the bears were a half mile or more down the mountain.

Look at the claws on that animal!

The bears disappear behind a ledge and we continue on toward the Hidden Lake overlook.

Here’s another little waterfall.

Now, there was a lot of activity between that waterfall picture and the next one but I was a little preoccupied with other matters…You see, that mama grizzly and her cub decided to use the same trail that I was using.  Of course, Kathy was far ahead of me so it was just me and the bear about 100 yards apart.  All I could imagine was that bear using a nice easy trail to amber along.  It was then that I hollered for Kathy so I could offer her up as ransom to the bear.  Fortunately for both of us, the bear decided to continue to climb the mountain and was gone.

So after all that I arrived at the Hidden Lake overlook.

We were up in the fog at that point, so it remained hidden.

It was supposed to look like this.

After all that excitement, we were ready to head back down the mountain.

Leave it to the government to build a boardwalk around a rock.

It had cleared a little so there were some views on the return trip.

We made it back to the visitor center, looked through that and then found a place to enjoy the lunch we packed.

This looks like a good spot.

It’s a scenic little run of water.

We weren’t satisfied with the standard view near the road and went exploring a little downstream.

Sometimes there’s a payoff to going a little farther.  Not this time.

So with our bellies nourished, we stop for activity #2 today.  This was scheduled for tomorrow, but I felt up to another walk in the woods. Who knows?  Maybe we could find some more bears.

The goal is to see a St. Mary and Virginia Falls.  Off we go.

The trail leads through an area that I later found out had burned in 2015.  So this is what 3 years of recovery look like.

We saw these ducks along the river.  

That’s a duck I’m not familiar with.

We arrive at the first falls after a mostly downhill trek, St. Mary Falls.

Then continue on to the Virginia Falls.  This trek is all uphill gaining a few hundred feet in a half mile or so.  There’s one waterfall after another all the way up to the main attraction.  I’ll just post the pictures in order of the trip up the hill.

Until we arrive at the Virginia Falls. 

 It was worth the climb

Then we moved down just a bit for what I thought was the best viewing.  Here are some of my favorites

And my favorite photo for whatever reason.

So what started out as a bit of a disappointing weather day, wound up as a very entertaining day.  I’d be willing to pass on any more encounters with the grizzlies.  That was frightening.

Like I said, tomorrow’s weather could be on the nasty side so there may not be so much touring but on a positive note, the smoke haze dissipated with the wind shift late this afternoon.

Glacier National Park is incredible.  Everything here is on a grand scale.