Logan's Pass: Glacier National Park

I have had company here on the farm. My sister came to visit. So blogging came to a halt for a few days. We love having her visit. The dogs are delighted too.
The weather is wonderful. Rain and cool weather. Just like Montana.... which is where I took these photos. Logan's pass, in Glacier Nat. Park, is the highest spot on the Going to the Sun road. It straddles the Continental Divide. This is Alpine country and still has wildflowers in September.

When I first sighted these Bighorn sheep I was stunned. They are huge. They can weight from 100 to 300 lbs and are 5 to 6 ft long. This group just sat up on the hillside above the parking lot at Logan's Pass.

Look at this guy. He looked like the leader of the pack. He was majestic! He has such an old and wise face. We were very lucky to have them congregate so close to the parking area. Of course, this is not as close as it looks. "D" let me use her big lens that brought the sheep "up close and personal" and the miracle of cropping photos makes it look like I could have reached out and touched him. I cannot tell you the thrill of seeing these sheep for the first time.

This is me on the "easy" Hidden Lake Trail that is one of the most popular hikes in the park. It goes up 1.5 miles to Hidden Lake. It was very tiring and we make it about 1 mile, saw the next rung of the wooden path ahead of us, decided that we had reach the "65 years and above" level and turned around. Now, anyone that has been there and is in good physical shape will say that we wimped out, but I say that for two 65 year old ladies... we did good. As we came back down I smiled at the thought that some older person would pass me and think..."If she can do it, I can." Little did they know that we turned around before we reached Hidden Lake. I hope that everyone made it. A little later a helicopter came in over us and the thought crossed my mind that they were flying above us to pick up someone who attempted to go the distance and didn't make it. I felt justified in turning around, even though there is still a part of me that wishes I had tried harder and pushed myself further. On the other hand I'm proud of how far I did go. It was a beautiful hike and worth the effort.

( "D" took this picture of me on our downward hike back to the parking lot. Looking up toward the rise is the top of the hill that continued on to the lake. It was still another half mile from there to the lake.)

Angel Wing at McDonald Falls

To continue our trip into Glacier National Park I have to say something about the water. This is glacial water and , like all the lakes and rivers in Northwest Montana, there is something very special about the color of the water. I'm sure that when Lewis and Clark came West they didn't see the difference as much as we do now. The look of unpolluted water is different. It's so pristine that you can see further into it... clear, with a sparkle that stuns you when the sun is reflecting on it and the color.... a turquoise that I have never seen anywhere else. Because it's in a National park and protected... because it's close to it's source (the melting snow and glaciers of the mountain peaks) there is this amazing turquoise color that is so beautiful and intense that you might think, if you swam into it, that you would emerge with a turquoise tint on your skin.

We walked down to a bridge that crosses the McDonald River below the falls and, as we took pictures, I saw a movement on the log railing. This little butterfly had come to say hello. This is a Satyr butterfly of the Angel Wing family. They are named for the sharp. angular margins of their wings. The underside resembles dead leaves or bark for camouflage.

"D" took these photos when I reached over and put my hand underneath this little creature. It simply walked onto my fingers and showed off it's pretty wing for us. What a simple act of trust that was for one so small. It posed, walked on my hand for awhile and then flew to the other side of the bridge to meet someone else. I count this as our first, wild welcoming to the park.

Bear Cub has a Bad Day... and other Glacial thoughts.

updated 7/27/2010 8:06:22 PM ET
COLUMBUS, Ohio — TV host and zookeeper Jack Hanna says he took his own advice and used pepper spray on a grizzly bear headed toward him.
The Columbus Zoo keeper and frequent David Letterman guest said he was with his wife and other hikers in Montana's Glacier National Park on Saturday when a bear cub, weighing about 125 pounds, charged them. Hanna told The Columbus Dispatch that he held up a canister of pepper spray, which he takes routinely on hikes.
"At about 30 feet, I unload my pepper spray, and the wind takes it," he told the newspaper.
But the bear kept coming. Hanna sprayed toward the animal again, but still it kept coming.
"Then the third time I unload that pepper spray right in his face," Hanna said.
The bear turned around and fled.
Hanna said he's been carrying pepper spray on hikes for 15 years, but Saturday was the first time he's used it.
The group was returning from Grinnell Glacier by way of a narrow trail with a cliff on one side and a steep drop-off on the other. They rounded a corner and saw a mother bear and two large cubs about 30-feet away coming toward them, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
"We thought of letting them go by, but the trail was cut into the rock and was too narrow," Hanna said. "So I said, 'Everybody talk loud and we'll back up until we can get off the trail.'"
They moved slowly back up the trail to a clearing.
"I said, 'Crawl up the hill and put your backs against the wall,'" he said.
Then they stood still while the mother and one cub passed by. The other cub, instead, charged toward them.
Hanna had recently filmed a message for the National Park Service encouraging hikers to carry pepper spray. ~associated press story~

The bear CUB attacked them.... the bear CUB. Not the mom, but the baby.
This was only weeks before we drove into the park and if it could happen to Jack Hanna, it could happen to anyone. Obviously, the bear cub didn't know who this man was. Children have no respect for their elders these days.
So.... we decided that we would NOT be going on any long hikes with or without a guide, with or without other people. We also went into a store in Apgar Village, at the west entrance, and these spray cans of what they call Bear Spray were $50.00 a can and it's recommended that you take two of them with you. That was the clincher.
The problem is that something happens to you when you get into this park. I think it's some kind of hypnosis. All of sudden you see this....










...and this.







You forget everything else that made sense before you drove into the park. This is a magical place. The view sweeps you into another world. Lake McDonald's Rorschach like reflections ink-blot impressions on your emotions that eliminate any reservations you had about not being safe.


You stand on the edge of astounding beauty and the Grizzly bear becomes one small part of the wilderness before you. The Black Bear, Elk, Mountain Goats and the Bighorn Sheep exist only as a part of the whole and therefore seem far less ominous.

This is the first psychological test that greets you as you step onto the edge of this great preserve. It is a deceptive loveliness that takes away your safety net and makes you vulnerable.
Standing on the edge of this lake I think I could hear the earth breathing....