Wow - Glacier National Park

[Greg G]

A few more photos from the Many Glacier hike (have a lot more)

Salamander Glacier with waterfall from the glacier feeding into upper Grinnell Lake. Icebergs in the lake.
Grinnell Glacier is the glacier at the back of and left side of the lake.

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Mt. Gould is the leftmost mt here with Grinnell Glacier stretching across the bottom the mountains.

Big Horn Ram on mountain side

Mt Gould with Grinnell Glacier at the bottom

Mountain goat right on trail.

Lower Grinnell Lake as seen from Grinnell Glacier trail

 

[Greg G]

And a few more

Upper Grinnel Lake

Relation of Grinnel Glacier to Lower Grinnel Lake

 

[silentg]

Absolutely Beautiful Photos!

 

[Laurie]

Like like like!

How long did that 12-mile hike take you? (And did you stop for photos often, or hike consistently from point A to B?) I'm not sure I could do 12 miles, but these pictures are an inspiration.

We'll (hopefully) be back in Sept for our second trip there. (I read a prediction that the glaciers will be gone from this NP in the not-too-distant future, which is one reason I wanted to get in a return trip asap.)

So I'm following your thread closely for pictures, and fire updates. Thank you!

 

[Laurie]

A beautiful photo from Glacier, posted by US Dept of the Interior and shared by various entities on facebook today:

http://dustin-lefevre.artistwebsites.com/featured/the-grace-of-wild-things-dustin-lefevre.html

Caption is:
A beautiful photo of first light at Glacier National Park in Montana. Of the image, photographer Kevin LeFevre says: "While shooting the sunrise at Bowman Lake, we were graced with this meandering doe. I scrambled to change my camera settings to accommodate the movement and pulled off this solitary photo. A once in a lifetime." While parts of Glacier are closed because of ‪#‎ReynoldsCreekFire‬, most of the park remains open, including Bowman Lake area. Photo courtesy of Kevin LeFevre.

 

[taterhed]

Really amazing pics.
That tour up thru Canada sounds nice too. So many trips, so little time.

Maybe I need to retire early!

 

[Greg G]

Laurie

I started the hike around 10:40 in the morning at the Many Glacier hotel and got back to the hotel around 7:30 pm. I stopped quite often to take pictures, about a minute or so each time I stopped, and I took 560 some pictures during my hike (hard to say how many times I stopped). I take lots of pictures at different exposures and views so at least a few should come out decent (the take lots and hope for a few good ones approach). I lingered the longest once I got to the glacier overlook for probably 15 minutes as it is so pretty. I also lingered at Grinnell Lake (the lower lake) for maybe 5 to 10 minutes at the most. I actually went further than 12 miles (this is the round trip distance) as I hiked to Grinnell Lake first and then doubled back to the Grinnell Glacier trail switch back at the south end of Lake Josephine. So basically I went 2 times the distance between the south end of Lake Josephine and Grinnell lake further than 12 miles. The pictures of the Grinnell lake look much better taken from above on the glacier trail although the waterfall at the end of that lake has some neat patterns that you might not see from the glacier trail. I used the website " A slow hiker guide : glacier national park" http://www.glacierhikers.com/ to plan my hikes along with the e-book "Best Easy Day Hikes Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks"

Greg

 

[Greg G]

Laurie

Wow, very pretty silhouette of that deer at Bowman Lake (yeah, that is a once in a lifetime picture). I hiked part of the Bowman Lake trail last year and it has beautiful views of the mountains. Although getting to the lake is like traveling to the ends of the earth (what a pot hole ridden one lane gravel road).
No change in status of Going to the Sun Road but sounds like they are progressing in containing the fire. See http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4405/# and the http://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm


Greg

 

[Ricci]

Beautiful shots!

 

[Greg G]

 

[Greg G]

Well just got back home but the day before I drove along Camas Rd on the West side of GNP to see if I could spot any bears closer than I had seen way off in the distance at Logan Pass. It was getting late and as I started to drive south on Camas Rd to leave the park, I didn't see a bear but was treated to this view. In the course of 10 minutes the lighting changed quite a bit between the two pictures. Cars were stopping all over the place to take pics.

 

[Ricci]

I remember that location very well......gorgeous!

 

[Timeshare Von]

Here's another pic..... he was not far from Rte. 3 in the Many Glacier Area. I can't remember exactly where, but the lake was not visible from where we stopped for the picture. He was about 150 feet from the road when we first saw him......he then traveled to about 25 feet from the road.

Great photo! Yes, you were very good (and lucky too) to see bears so close. Thanks for sharing your photos with us!

 

[Timeshare Von]

Greg . . . as someone who can't really hike any distance, I really appreciated your photos (especially of the glaciers).

Thanks so much for sharing!

 

[Laurie]

Greg, I consulted with our Glacier expert - a friend who worked there one summer, went with us last time and will again this time. Turns out that on our last trip, we took a boat from the lodge + then did a little hike to the bottom of Grinnell Lake, so we saw the glacier from lake level. I believe we took a boat back as well. (I think it was raining that day too.) But we didn't hike up. So maybe we can get up there this time. Still not sure I could do 12 miles in a day, more like 6. Kudos to you.

http://www.glacierhikers.com/grinnell.html

"In 2003 USGS predicted that ALL of the glaciers will have melted by 2030 in Glacier National Park.
That estimate in 2007 was revised to ALL of the glaciers having melted by 2022."

Take heed, TUGgers who want to visit Glacier!

 

[Greg G]

Laurie

Yes, you can cut off quite a bit of the hiking distance and time by taking the boat ride across the lakes. I should have mentioned that. Per the slow hikers guide website it's 7.6 miles round trip from the Lake Josephine Boat Dock to Grinnell Glacier overlook. I believe (but not sure) most of the 1600 ft climb is still after that point but at least you haven't expended any energy getting to that starting point. I wanted to do the whole hike as I thought I could see more wildlife along the way and stop when I wanted to take pictures, plus I didn't plan on hiking all the way up to the glacier at the time, but I'm very glad I did go all the way up to it. One thing I suggest is stop often to admire the views because as you hike along the angle you see things from changes quite a bit. Even though the Glacier and upper lake is the end point the views along the way are beautiful as well. Plus you need to stop and just sit and scan the landscape to watch for any movement of wildlife. I even saw hikers picking huckleberries along the way and putting them in empty water bottles. Yeah in regards to the glaciers melting its instructive to look at pictures 5, 10, 15 years ago and longer to see the difference.

Sounds like they have opened up the west side of the road to Logan Pass so most of the Logan Pass hikes are open then. Laurie, what dates in Sept were you going (I assume before most of Going to the Sun Road would typically close) ?

Yvonne, your welcome.

Greg

 

[Greg G]

As an example of how the view can change along the trail here is another shot of Lower Grinnell Lake I took along the glacier trail but from a different angle along the trail.

Here is a shot from the Grinnell Glacier Overlook of the valley below showing lower Lake Grinnell (closest) then Lake Josephine, then Lake Sherburne (Swiftcurrent Lake is hidden by the mountain on the left but you can see a little tip of it in the picture)

Greg

 

[uop1497]

Thank you for sharing many beautiful pictures .