Glacier National Park - 8/5/11 (Hidden Lake Trail)

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.

Glacier National Park - 8/5/11 (Big Horn Sheep)

After we were don e shooting we assumed our rightful place at the head of the line to continue up Going-To-The-Sun Road to the Logan Pass visitors center. When we arrived I was thrilled to see a small herd of Big Horn Sheep right there in the parking area. Surprisingly, one of the big males was munching away on cardboard that was in this construction area. We walked right up to within 20 feet of them.

Out of my field of view there was apparently a marmot that scared one of the younger sheep and they all bolted for up the hill. I kind of like the action feel of this shot (though I could live without the pallet in it!)

This is the bog bo that was eating the cardboard - after the marmot scared all of these I think he really wanted to come back for more cardboard!

They kept going further and further up the mountain.

I like this shot because the one was rearing up and head slamming the other. It really is as loud as they say on the nature shows!

Glacier National PArk - 8/5/11 (Sunrise Shoot)

Ok, so we are gong to break down this day into smaller segments since we seem to have done quite a lot -then again we did get up at 3:00 a.m. so that is to be expected.

All week we kept seeing a flashy sign on Going-To-The-Sun Road that said the road would be closed from Monday through Thursday from 9:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. then 2:15 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. We both consider ourselves to be pretty intelligent people so we naturally interpreted that to mean that Friday at 4:00 a.m. we would be good to go to driver over the pass and do a sunrise shoot at Wild Goose Island - the one set of images I was determined to get while we were there!!

Apparently in Montana, however, Thursday really means Friday because we when we arrived at the Loop we saw that the road was still closed and were told that Thursday really meant Friday and we would just have to wait until 7:00 a.m. when the road reopened.

Ok, so we didn't wake up at 3:00 a.m. for nothing so, we parked at the loop and tried to sleep in the car until the sun came up. John did a much better job than I did. For reasons I cannot fathom, I was extremely paranoid - despite applying the emergency brake and being abutted against a stone wall - of rolling off the cliff that was in front of us so I really didn't get any sleep. I didn't want to get out and wander around because I was certain there were bears watching us, so we stayed in the cart until about 5:30 when it started getting lighter. Heaven's Peak was in front of us and while it was not Wild Goose Island it would suffice for sunrise pictures.

Actually, I was certain mine wouldn't turn out because my creativity felt blocked by my aggravation at having not b e permitted to my preferred destination. However, I tried to make lemonade out of lemons and think I did a pretty good job!

I experimented a bit with shooting panoramas while there and I think they came out pretty good. This is another favorite from our trip - the thin ribbon of sunlight hitting the peaks was awe-inspiring!

I looked to my left and between these two mountains was this intense orange glow, it was incredible!

Glacier National Park - 8/4/11

These pictures are all over the place, but basically this day we spent more time driving than we did actually getting out and doing anything. In the morning we went to McDonald Falls with the hope of shooting the falls from the other side of the river. Due to a wrong turn on the trail (which wasn't maked very well) we walked a mile out of our way and ended up away from the river and on a service road! Worse than that though was the impenetrable cloud of mosquitos that never seemed to leave us! They were unrelenting. Eventually we did make it to the correct trail and got some pictures. After which we made the really long drive to Many Glacier and hiked the entire perimeter of Swiftcurrent lake.

This is a little family of Common Goldeneyes that we saw, they were really cute!

This is the Many Glacier Lodge as seen from across Swiftcurrent Lake.

This is the beginning of the trail to the falls.

We finally made it to the falls!

These are female common mergansers at Swiftcurrent Lake.

Glacier National Park - 8/3/11

This was one of the most exciting days of our trip! We decided to take a helicopter tour of Glacier National Park and really get some amazing and unique shots. This was a real learning experience for me as well.

As a photographer I know that the best light is before 10:00 am or after about 4:00 pm so I thought that a 9:00 am tour would give me the best light. That might be true if I were on the ground, but it isn't true when you are housed in a glass bubble.

Unfortunately, a lot of my shots and angles were obstructed or obscured by oddly shaped reflections in the windows of the helicopter. Still, when the sun was at our backs I was able to get some pretty good images.

They asked for a volunteer to sit in the cockpit and my arm shot up like a rocket. I figured that would be the best place for shooting. I had forgotten that you could see through the floor to the ground. I thought I would be a little nervous, especially after being freaked out by the shuttle bus being so close to the edge of the cliff on Going-To-The-Sun Road, but I must have been so excited it overrode my terror! In fact, I thought it was really awesome and wasn't scared at all - I would do it again in a Chicago minute!!

This is us before we boarded and took off.

This is a view of the mountain range looking northwest .

I was intrigued by the amazing array of rock formations and the way the glaciers were cracked!

I think this is Gunsight Lake.

This is what Logan Pass looks like from the sky - you can see the parking lot and road in the lower right of the picture. The trail that goes off to the top left is the Hidden Lake trail which is usually not covered in so much snow. This is a good thing though because it will help rebuild the glaciers!

This was my view from the cockpit!! I still can't believe I wasn't terrified!

This is Hidden Lake - this is as close as I got to it on our entire trip. After seeing all the snow on that trail I realize without ice climbing boots there is no way I would have made it - too much potential to slide off a mountain!

Kind of looks like a volcano!

This is Lake McDonald from the sky - it is ginormous! All of that lighter green and brownish area is from a fire in 2003 which burned about 8% of the park!! You can also see a little reddish strip of trees to the bottom right which is evidence of a parasite that is descimating the trees in the park - similar to the Pine Bark Beetle damage in Yellowstone and the Tetons. Thanks global warming!

This is after we came back - we really wanted to go again. Next time we're taking the hour long tour!!

After the heli tour we drove to Two Medicine then up and over the Going-To-The-Sun road and made a pit stop here to scout out a good spot for a sunrise shoot of Wild Goose Island - one of the most photographed features in Glacier. More on that saga in a subsequent post!

On our way to Two Medicine we saw all of these possibly wild horses and stopped to take pictures. We did see a lot of wild horses when we were driving around on our trip. I wasn't sure if these were wild or not because there was a barbed wire fence where I was standing to take this picture but at the end of this road where it meets the highway there was no fence!! I would really like to imagine that they are wild.

Here is a mamma and her foal - so cute!!

This was another stop along the McDonald Creek - sooo many places to shoot along here!

This is McDonald Falls.

This is Running Woman Falls. If you go, read the story about Running Woman, it is intersting but kind of sad.

This is the lake at Two Medicine.

Another shot of Wild Goose Island.