Yes, the saga of Hidden Lake trail continues. We thought certainly by the end of the week we would be able to make decent progress up this trail and at least get some better shots that we did previously. So after the initial thrilled of shooting the Big Horn Sheep wore off we set out to give it another go!
While the snow had significantly receded since our first attempt nearly a week earlier, there was still quite bit there. One thing about climbing this stuff, it is super easy to kick in your boots and make snow stairs to ascend. It is an entirely different matter getting yourself back down!
Given that my knees are fairly unstable since my knee surgeries, and since my center if gravity is a lot higher than it used to be, I was not feeling at all comfortable with my ability to extricate myself from that mountain once I'd gotten up.
So I told John to continue on without me and I ended up sitting on the boardwalk steps (the few that were snow bare) and shot the following series of pictures in between tears - yea, I kind of cried a little up there because I was frustrated at my inability to safely get where I wanted to go, especially since the WIld Goose Island sunrise shoot was such a bust, but at least I ended up with some nice images.
This is the boardwalk that heads up to Hidden Lake - it looks a hell of a lot steeper coming back down, trust me!
This 'dead tree' laying in the snow is a trail marker for when there is a lot more snow. When we first arrived these were being held up by snow and went down pretty deep. However, the fact that they get 48-100 feet of snow annually means they are as effective as toothpicks in the dead of winter!
This is actually looking north. This is the famed Garden Wall. On the other side of this (and there is a trail that goes here) is the Grinnell Glacier and a bit beyond that is Many Glacier.
These are Glacier Iris and they were blooming in increasing numbers the whole time we were there. They look like a cross between a lily and a tulip, very pretty and very abundant!
This is that sam marmot from the week earlier that loved to pose for photographers.
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