Saturday, August 18: Glacier
Lots of pictures
Because we got to bed so late the previous night, we slept late, then had breakfast.
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As we drove out, I noticed that my camera filter was gunked, so since we were still close to the cabin, we returned and I got my lens cleaning supplies. Then we drove to the St Mary’s Falls trail head, where I cleaned my filter, after which we started hiking.
The trail is easy and broad. It drops slightly to get to the river, where it crosses a bridge right in front of the falls. The water was a very nice green color due to the glacial flour. We got a bunch of pictures, then continued on to the Virginia Falls. Along the way we got pictures of a number of cascades.
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The Virginia Falls were bigger and nicer than the St Mary Falls. We had some granola bars for “lunch”, then hiked out. To Michael’s delight, the trail was all downhill to the St Mary Falls, although then it climbed slightly to the parking lot. We got out around 3:30.
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We decided to skip lunch, just have a snack, and then have an earlier dinner. So we went back to Rising Sun and got some ice cream. For his snack, Mike opted for some Ramen noodles.
Amy was feeling like relaxing, so I drove her and Mike to Sun Point. The theory was that they would meander the nature trail to the lake, and then Amy would just sit and read. Meanwhile, I drove up towards Logan Pass to visit turn-outs that we had previously passed.
While I hadn’t planned on it turning out that way, I ended up doing a tour of cascades for pictures. I first stopped at Sunrift Gorge, where I found a stream in a gorge and I got some pictures. I found that in the gorge and near the creek, there was a very refreshing cool breeze. Of course, once you got up and back to the parking lot, the breeze was gone.
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Then I drove on to Siyeh Bend, where I was surprised to find another stream that was good for cascade pictures. This time, however, there was a large patch of wild flowers between the trail and the stream. The geometry was such that I could take pictures with the flowers in the foreground and the cascades in the background. Hopefully some of these came out good.
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Finally I went up to another bend in the road, where I got some more pictures of cascades.
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Hiking back out, I turned a corner of the trail and found a big horned sheep in the trail maybe twenty feet in front of me. I tried to get some pictures as it walked off the trail and into the brush, but my camera was set up for tripod-based waterfall pictures. I only managed to get one barely recognizable picture before the sheep was gone.
I drove a little further, but I didn’t find any more places worth taking pictures. Driving back, I was no on the outside of the roadway, next to the big drop-offs, which made me a bit nervous. (Normally Amy drove these stretches.)
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I found Amy and Mike around 7, then we went to dinner. From the dining room, we had good views of the mountains across the lake. As the sun was setting, the views became totally awesome.
On the other hand, the restaurant had some of the worst fly problems we’ve had yet in restaurants.