Today started with some disappointment that the sky was completely clouded over, there wouldn't be any sunrise shooting at Two Medicine Lake. Ok, I was disappointed while Carol seemed to relish the thought of staying warm in bed a couple extra hours.
Even though it didn't look promising,
we decided to drive north to the St. Mary entrance to Glacier
and start driving up the Going to the Sun Highway.The road from
Two Medicine campground to St. Mary is pretty interesting. It
crosses a high ridge between the two drainages on a narrow road
that winds along the ridgeline. It took about 40 minutes to drive
the 24 miles to St. Mary.
When we reached St. Mary, the sky was
completely clear. What a difference from Two Medicine!
We stopped at the turnout for Wild Goose Island
and were pleasantly surprised
by the calm waters since we were several hours after golden light. We decided to
try to hike the Hidden Lake trail at Logan Pass while the weather
was good.
We were nearly to Logan Pass when we saw cars parked
and people pointing up Lunch Creek. We were stuck in the traffic,
but we did get a glimpse of a group of bighorn sheep. We've become
a bit jaded about some kinds of wildlife, but never bighorn sheep.
We managed to find a parking spot a bit up the highway, and we
walked back to the stream. Although all the bighorn sheep had
left the area, we decided to hike up a trail along the stream
and see if we could find them. We hiked up to the end of one
arm of the trail and had started back down, when we glimpsed
a huge ram across the stream and in a clearing above us. We started
to look for another trail to work our way up to the ram, when
we saw a group of five bighorn rams. They weren't as impressive
as the big ram we saw in the distance, but they were only about
20 feet from us and didn't seem concerned about our presence
at all. We had the herd to ourselves and had a great time photographing
the group. They eventually got bored with us and sauntered away,
but they provided some great images.
Logan Pass was only about two miles up the road. We parked the Explorer, checked out the Visitor
Center, and then began the hike up to the Hidden Lake Overlook. We had done this hike the last time we were in Glacier and remembered
the boardwalk that crosses the fragile alpine area. The boardwalks
were cool; the hundred or so steps in the boardwalks that take
you up the mountainside are not so fun. The biggest surprise
was all the wildflowers still in bloom, Most were definitely
past prime, but they were still blooming. In past years, the
only flowers seemed to be the purple asters and they were scarce.
We hiked all the way to the overlook before we saw a single mountain goat. Last time, they paralleled us nearly the whole distance across the saddle to the overlook. Once we reached the overlook, we had opportunities to photograph mountain goats for the rest of the afternoon. And we did. We left Logan Pass at noon and didn't return until nearly 5:00. We took hundreds of images of the mountain goats, ground squirrels, and hoary marmots. The marmots are nearly twice the size of the yellow-bellied marmots that we have in the Sierras, but they have the same lazy habits. They eat awhile and then find a warm rock in the sun for a nap. After the nap, they repeat the process and take another nap.
It must have been a very successful breeding season, because nearly every female mountain goat had a kid. The adults and kids have their winter coats, so they look like they're wearing white down parkas. The kids are very cute and seem to stay very close to mom. The mountain goats have no fear of humans, so it's great watching them go about their normal routines. My favorite thing is when they stand on the edge of one of the cliffs and look out across the mountains or down to Hidden Lake. They are truly majestic animals.
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| Hidden Lake | Mt. Goat | Columbia Ground Squirrel |
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| Hoary Marmot | Carol Shooting Mt. Goat | The Garden Wall |
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