Glacier
Glacier National Park in Montana is a magnificent landscape of mountains, lakes, meadows, and glaciers.
Glacier National Park is one of those places where the grand
dimensions of the earth- abstract measures of distance and altitude-
can be made real in a glance. Mountains soar thousands of feet above
you and valleys plunge down thousands more. The horizon is stretched
out by the distant mountain peaks that reach up from behind the
curving earth.
Mountain peaks sail across the sky, carved by glaciers into axe head shapes.
Their vaulting cliffs are layered in strata of rock subtly colored in pale gray, green, yellow,
red, and black.
The park has a striking palette of colors. The rain rich
pacific north west drapes the mountains in emerald green meadows;
dotted with yellow and blue wildflowers.
White glaciers hang high up on the mountain slopes;
their seasonal advance and retreat recalling the cycles of the ice
ages that carved these mountains.
On the trail Mountain goats stroll casually by while big horn sheep can be seen on slopes high above.
Hiking to Hidden Lake
Hiking to Hidden Lake is a sublime experience; particulary if you are
blessed with a clear summer day. The trail starts at the Logan Pass
visitor center and runs for 1.5 miles, climbing 500 feet, to a
viewpoint overlooking Hidden Lake. The trail often becomes a wooden
walkway as it crosses the most delicate alpine meadows.
Sparse stands of evergreen trees huddle together against the fierce winters.
The occasional lone pine, with its branches twisted all around to one
side, remind you of the artic gales that sweep the park.
In the distance Bearhat mountain looms.
The snows
melting off the slopes above, feed small silver streams that weave
across the landscape, like contour lines marking the shape of the
mountain. The streams feed small ponds that nestle in hollows in the
meadows. As you approach a snow field a sudden playful wind may
sweep chill air across you.
Abruptly the trail ends at a viewpoint on the edge of a cliff. 800
feet below lie the blue waters of Hidden Lake. The lake forms a
narrow, two mile long arc, around the base of Bearhat mountain. The
opposite shore of the lake is lined with tall pines. Behind them
green meadows climb the lower slopes of Bearhat mountain.
From the viewpoint you may be able to see other hikers, 800 feet
below you, along the opposite lake shore. You can head back to the
Vistor's center or follow the side trail to the right that descends
to Hidden Lake. The trail is a short one, about two miles round
trip- but coming back your climbing 800 feet in a short distance,
along steep slopes.
The possibility of encoutering a bear, always
present in Glacier, increases as you leave the well traveled trails.
The trail to the lake first runs west, descending along the north
slope of the valley. It then curves south, and switchbacks down to
the valley floor.
The trail runs briefly through a stand of pines,
before emerging at the lake shore. The snow melt waters of the lake
are so clear that standing at the lakes edge, your eyes can follow
the lake bottom out for dozens of feet. Near the shore the water is
transparent and tinted tourquise green. You can see rocks and tree
limbs along the bottom. It is startling to watch fish swimming well
below the surface. Further out from the shore the water deepens
into a opaue navy blue.
Superimposed over this view of the lake
bottom is the reflection of the mountains, trees, and sky above; an
upside down potrait of the landscape painted in pale water colors.
Bearhat mountain is a steep, triangular peak, that is stripped in geological
layers, and dappled with snow; it looms 2,300 feet above the surface
of the lake. The lake often mirrors the triangular mountain above
it, forming a diamond.
The Going to the Sun road
The main road through the park is the Going to the Sun road. It winds
it's way through the park from east to west. The road skirts the
edges of low lying lakes and then climbs through the mountains,
switchbacking along sheer slopes to Logan Pass.
The Going to the Sun road often clings halfway up steep mountain slopes. At viewpoints along the road, your eyes can follow silvery streams as they melt off snow fields above you, and plunge down steep slopes, cascading over the occasional waterfall, to end in blue lakes far below.
A line of mountains
runs north to south through the park; dividing it into a east and west
halves.
The western side of the park gets the most rainfall. Rainclouds from the pacific ocean drop thier burden as they climb up the cold mountain ridges. The west side of the park is the emerald green of the pacific north west. The east has the more subdued earth colors of the central west. The eastern half is still worth the visit; often the skies there are clear while the western side is shrouded in fog and drizzle.
Glacier National Park park is a borderzone in may ways. The US/Canadian border runs through the park. So do the mountains of the continetal divide; cleaving rainfall into streams and rivers that run utlimately into the Atlantic or the Pacific. Here the temperate lower latitudes meet the tundras of the frozen north. Winter yields to summer along a tempoary truce line set at the end of the last ice age. The rolling great plains break against the sheer mountain slopes of the Cascades. A visit to the Park also brings you to the border between familar, everyday, civilization and timeless nature.
Hiking to Grinnel Glacier
On the right a waterfall cascades down from Grinnel Glacier into Grennel Lake.
The waterfall again from higher up on the trail. On the left, above the lake, is "Angels Wing" peak.
Bear Grass flowers and streams along the trail.
On the trail climbing up around Grinnel Lake.
A closer view of the waterfall cascading down into Grinnel Lake.
Here we've climbed up to Grinnel Glaicer and are looking backward on the trail. Immediately below is Grinnell Lake, follwed by Lake Josephine, and in the distance: Lake Sherburne.
We've reached Grinnel Glaicer. The glacier is on the left and water melting off of it forms the Upper Grinnel lake, on the right. Above, up on the mountain slope, sits Salamander Glacier. Salamander Glacier was once joined to Grinell until the glaciers retreat left it behind.
Cracks run through Grinnel Glaicer.
Occasionaly you can hear the distant rumble and crash of ice falling.
A waterfall of snowmelt from Salamander Glacier also feeds Grinnel Glacier.
Stromatolite fossils can be seen on the trail near Grinnel Glacier.
Stromatolites are clumps of bacteria. They still exist today and have one of the oldest lineages of life on earth. They were the only signs of life visible to eye in the time before or animals evolved.
See WikiPedia for more information.
All images © John Donohue