Probably the prettiest hike we took on the trip was the one to Iceberg Lake. It's a pretty darned popular day-hike in the Park, so one is rarely alone on the trail. Also, it's a relatively easy hike of ten miles round-trip with not a lot of climbing. There's a steep section in the first mile, but after that it's petty steady and easy going. One thing that I can say about this hike is that there is a lot to look at. Some of the route passes through forest, but the lion's share is above tree line and through meadows and open country with limitless views. Since the surrounding peaks loom as vast walls of steep rock, you often feel as though you are in a tremendous amphitheater. This is completely true of the terminus of the hike in the huge glacial bowl where Iceberg Lake is located. Iceberg Lake was obviously the location of a glacier in recent times. In fact, there's a pretty extensive snowfield that lies just above the lake, hanging on the rocky slopes even late into summer. And the lake is colored with "glacial flour" (finely ground rock) which is produced by glacial action and gives the water a striking emerald hue. In heavy snow years the lake stays full of the icebergs for which it is named, but since there was very low snow in the winter of 2014/15, we arrived to find only two very tiny icebergs floating around on the opposite side of the lake. Also in normal years, the area is packed with wildlife. I'd been told that it was one of the best areas to see many of the Park's signature creatures. However, 2015 was anything but a normal year for Glacier National Park. We were lucky enough to have pretty clear skies. The forest fires were still holding off the day we made the hike and the air was barely tinged with smoke. It wasn't as clear as the previous day, but almost so. As for the wildlife, we managed to see a grouse, several types of resident rodents, and a vast herd of Bighorn sheep. Today I will post photos of the hike from the start until just before we arrived at the Lake.
I had stayed behind at the truck to work on my camera equipment while the others pushed on. So it took me a while to catch up to them. Here was Andy and Bobby ahead of me as I struggled to find the rest of the group. The air was really clear that day and the views would stop you every few steps.
Scenery to die for.
Vast peaks rising all around us.
We happened upon this grouse. She was speaking to us constantly, or to her two nearly-grown chicks. She seemed very nervous to have us so near her babies, but the pair of youngsters hardly seemed to notice us.
This was the drop-off of a really high waterfall. But it was almost impossible to see it because it plummets into a very narrow chasm. Getting down to a spot where you could take an effective photograph would be difficult at best, and probably very dangerous.
As good a video as I could shoot considering my choices.
We got to a point where we could see ahead to the huge glacial cirque that hold the lake.
Nice shot showing the snowfields above the lake.
I like this shot. Indicative of the rugged terrain through which we were hiking.
And almost to the lake we looked up to see a truly vast herd of Bighorn sheep. The herd seemed to be composed entirely of ewes and lambs. If there were any adult males in there, I didn't see them. This is just a piece of the herd and is a crop of a telephoto shot. Currently I have only one low-quality telephoto lens and it frankly takes grainy photos at distance. When I can, I will purchase a better lens for long shots.
At one point on the trail Bobby and Sharon told me to push on, since Sharon was pretty sick. So I headed on, climbing to the top of the pass only to find that the trail still angled up, although at not quite as severe an angle. Still, the going was steep and tough and in open country in hot weather. It was hard.
I paused at a few spots along the way, but I was eager to get to the Granite Park Chalet because at this point daylight was becoming a serious factor. By this time I was pretty darned tired and wasn't stopping so much to talk to the odd person who I saw on the trail from time to time. Most of them had no packs and no water bottles with them, so I knew that I was seeing people who were staying at the back country chalet. At least I was getting close.
Finally, after one last climb I found myself at a meadow with the stairs leading up to the famous chalet. Yeah, even to get to the inn I was going to have to climb some big-ass stairs.
Once there, I tried to relax a little. I had no choice but to wait for Bobby and Sharon to catch up so that we could decide what to do. Worst case, I was sure the folk at the chalet could help us out in some way in case Sharon couldn't push on. So I just walked around the grounds, took photos, and admired the fantastic views from the chalet porch that I'd heard so much about. If only there hadn't been any smoke haze from the forest fires. I could see why those views were so well known around the world.
After a few minutes I walked back to the bottom of the stairs and lay back on the grass. Sooner than I expected, my hiking pals appeared. Bobby informed me that it was going to be up to me to get down the mountain in time to catch the shuttle back to Logans Gap. Sharon looked worn out and there was no way she would be able to keep up the pace we needed to set to get down the mountain in time.
Thus, I took the keys and began to move down the slope (which was, this time, the promised downhill march). I had to travel a little over four miles in roughly and hour and fifteen minutes to assure beating the shuttle to the stop. I only stopped a couple of times to take photos and catch my breath. The hike was very hot since the forests that had once clothed these slopes had been taken out in a really severe fire some years before. Once again I was hiking in full sun.
I have to admit that I made great time. I got to The Loop a little less than one hour after I'd left Sharon and Bobby behind. I got there a full thirty minutes before the shuttle. But I was exhausted, my hip was screaming at me, and I was not only out of water, but unable to replenish my supply of water, since the bathroom at the road consisted of a pit toilet only and there was no running water available.
Finally, the shuttle pulled in and I climbed aboard. The driver assured me that the shuttle at Logans Gap would wait for us before it pulled out to head to Saint Mary Visitor Center where the truck was parked. And he was as good as his word. After the long drive to the gap I switched shuttles and another long drive ensued until I arrived at Saint Mary. There, I drank probably half a gallon of water from a fountain before climbing into Bobby's kick-ass V8 American-made truck. That machine drives a lot different than my Nissan V6, let me tell you.
I hit Logans Gap just to make sure Bobby and Sharon had not found a ride up there and found that they had not, but that the parking lot was full of Bighorn rams looking for handouts from the smattering of tourists who were still at the gap at sundown. Then I headed down to The Loop where my hiking companions were waiting for my arrival.
From there, we drove back to camp where--as I've recounted--Carole had reported us all missing to the National Park Service. We couldn't blame her, since it was well after 10 pm before we got back to Two Medicine. By the next morning my hip was screaming volumes of pain at me, and let me know that such hikes are definitely not good for me until the root problem has been treated.
But it was a hell of an adventure.
Not just uphill...but a damned long way to go.
Lichens cover the rock face of this cliff.
This hoary marmot spent some time with us.
Nothing to do but just keep pushing on!
Fossilized streambed from many millions of years ago.
About halfway into the Highline Trail hike I began to have doubts about being able to finish without having to rush the last part of it. I was already in a fair amount of pain despite taking a good prescription painkiller before starting the hike. But we were beginning to fall behind the pace I wanted to set. One of the reasons, in addition to Sharon being slowed down by developing sickness, was that the trail is in no way "downhill" as had been repeatedly described to me.
Yes, I knew that there was some elevation gain along the way, but had been told over and over that it was incremental and just in several spots along the route. In fact, though, the trail had pretty much been an almost continual steady uphill climb after the first couple of slightly downhill miles. After those, the trail took an upward turn and never left it. So we were pretty much constantly climbing, with almost all of that walking being above treeline and in full sun, which was getting pretty darned hot. I also began to worry that the six liters of water I'd carried along might not be enough to get me to the end of the trail.
As we continued to hike, I kept a lookout for wildlife, hoping to see something out of the ordinary. I did happen upon a couple of pika, but they would not come out of the rocks so that I could get a photo of them. Then I saw yet another golden mantled ground squirrel, but I'd seen so many of those that I was not impressed.
Finally, a Bighorn sheep appeared on my right, not far upslope. This time it was not a lamb or a ewe, but a ram. I'd been in the Park for several days and had not seen a single Bighorn ram. And now, here was one just above me. I got a photo and pushed on.
In a little while I was passed by two attractive young ladies, and then the sheep again appeared along the trail, this time very close and on my left. I was able to get some better photos of him as I continued to walk. And then, rounding a bend in the trail, I saw that we were going to have to make a very long and very steep climb. This was not something I had anticipated and I knew that it was going to slow us down even more. Once again, I should have checked several sources so that I would have been aware of what we were going to face. I'd been told that there was about 800 total feet of elevation gain between Logans Gap and Granite Park Chalet, but in fact there was over 1800 feet of steep climbing before you reach the chalet.
There was nothing to do but keep going and hope to be able to pick up the pace later and make up the time.
Sometimes the trail was level or only slightly uphill. We passed through a refreshing bit of forest for a mile or so along they way. It provided welcome shade.
Oh, crap! We don't have to climb that, do we?!
Well, there's really nowhere else for the trail to go. Yes, we do.
A view up at the butte and saddle we'd have to negotiate.
To my right, a Bighorn ram.
What? How'd this get in there?
"Yeah, baby!"
I knew it was going to be a heavy climb. Nowhere to go but up that saddle.
Crap. At least 800 or a thousand feet of elevation gain just to hit the high ground.
Part of the long, broad switchbacks we had to gain.
Okay. I don't want to get bogged down in a rut of boring travelogue. So, here's where I cut to the chase and post some animal photos. Because, really, that was the main reason I wanted to take the trip to Glacier National Park. Yes, it was going to be cool to see the very last of Park's fading glaciers. To be sure, I wanted to say that I'd seen Glacier National Park while there were still a few glaciers in the damned place! And there they were, indeed. Pathetic, rocky, streaked with dirt and soot. I can say that I saw them before humans pumped so much carbon gas into the atmosphere that we had heated the planet to such an extreme that glaciers can no longer hang on the shoulders of 9,000-foot towering summits at the Canadian border. Plus, I wanted to see the vistas. I got about three days of that sandwiched in between the days when fire smoke besmirched the great blue dome and made it impossible to see much of anything beyond a hundred meters. Once again, Mankind had so mucked up the planet that western droughts have become so severe and so prolonged that the states to the west of Montana--Idaho and Washington--were being swept with fires of truly mythic proportions. In fact, the fires in Washington state were truly engorged, one of them having become the largest in the history of Washington (over 400 square miles) while we were there. The smoke from it spread over the west and covered thousands of square miles. Between the rainfall that briefly cleared the skies and the time we left, that cloak of choking smoke covered our escape route from Washington clear down to Missouri. I am not exaggerating. It was that bad. Thank you, petrochemical industries of the western world. So. My other main reason for hitting Glacier was the wildlife. All of my friends who have visited the Park have impressed upon me the wildlife superlatives of the landscape. They--to a man--had told me that it was the finest that the lower 48 states has to offer. I was ready to see Grizzly bears, mountain goats, Bighorn sheep, Pronghorn antelopes, Black bears, Marmots, Fishers, mountain lions, Golden eagles, Bald eagles, Moose... I was chomping at the bit to see all of that glorious wildlife. Alas, it was not to be. Apparently both the drought and the forest fires had combined to chase most of the wildlife high into the mountains. The huckleberry crop was not to be found this year in the lowlands, and so the bears--both species--had fled into the high country to find the sweet berries. Mountainsides that were normally (I was told) swarming with goats and sheep were barren of all movement. I'm not saying the trip was cursed, but it was cursed. We did eventually end up seeing some wildlife. The only animals that we saw in abundance were rodents and--eventually--Bighorn sheep. Of bears, we saw two. One adult very high on a mountainside in Many Glacier, and a lone cub grazing some of kind of berry in a big shrub along the Going to the Sun Road. Mountain goats? I never saw one in the Park, but Carole and Andy saw two. The griz never made its appearance, and neither did the majestic moose. One ranger told us of a beaver pond where we could hang out to see a mother moose and calf, but the two never showed. Instead we got the consolation prize of seeing a beaver. All in all, it was still an impressive trip. Custer State Park in South Dakota delivered the big animals that Glacier did not. Also, the three days of clear skies that we did get in Glacier provided us with jaw-dropping scenery. Just not with much in the way of wildlife. What this means is that I'll have to go back. Not next year. But maybe in two or three years. Let's hope.
One critter of which there was no shortage was Bighorn sheep. They were pretty much everywhere.
Along the roads...
In the back country...
And even in the parking lot at Logan Pass.
Baby Mountain goat in Custer State Park.
Pronghorn in Custer.
All of the bison we saw were in Custer.
Big bull.
Big herd.
We went to a beaver pond to spot moose, but only saw beavers.
Momma grouse on the Iceberg Lake Trail. She had two half-grown chicks.
Jay.
A gorgeous Hoary Marmot on the Highline Trail.
Golden mantled ground squirrel.
One of the dark red squirrels. This was the best shot I could get of one, since they were so active.
We got a huge kick out of watching the Prarie dogs.
This little chipmunk was taking a dust bath.
Another golden mantled ground squirrel.
This was the only adult bear we saw. He was very far away on a big mountain.
This bear cub was crawling around in this shrub eating the heck out of the berries growing on it. I don't know what the shrub is, but he was going to town on those berries!
