Grandeur and Majesty of the Mountains

George Bird Grinnell was prominent in movements to preserve wildlife and conservation in the American West. He particularly worked to spread awareness of the conservation of bison. He named many of the features in the Glacier region and Grinnell Mountain and Glacier are named after him. In his words, “No words can describe the grandeur and majesty of the mountains, and even photographs seem hopelessly to dwarf and belittle the most impressive peaks.” I’ve taken 1,000’s of photographs on this trip, but as he said, they seem to dwarf the peaks. Hopefully with my photos, you can get some idea of the size and impressiveness of this park.

The highlight of the trip into the park today was seeing a mountain goat up by Logan Pass. I was out on the overlook and he was standing down below munching on grasses and licking the salt out of the ground. Here are some of my favorite photos from the day.

Mountain goats are the symbol of Glacier National Park. They easily scale impossibly steep-looking cliffs, which gives them protection from their predators. Even the young goats are at home on the narrow ledges. In that same valley I took a few shots of people along the Highline Trail and of the GTTS Road. Enjoy the majesty and beauty of the area.

Fireweed flowers in the foreground of Logan Pass. They’re the first flowers to regrow after a fire.

View of Going to the Sun Road

View of famous wall and Going to the Sun Road in the distance.

Few of 1995 damages much of the park. There are fires every year.

Thanks, Lucy for the photoshopped bighorn in our photo. That’s the area where they’re generally seen!!

This photo was taken at Logan Pass and I shot the mountain and then with my telephoto lens I could see a couple of Bighorn Sheep. The first picture shows the mountain and the second the close up of the sheep!! Massive curled horns help identify these sheep. The females have horns, but theirs are much smaller and not curled. They like to graze in the nearby meadows and up in the higher ground.

The Going to the Sun Road provides access to most of the hikes and sights of the park. Entry passes are needed to access this road so it’s important to have them before coming to the park. Glacier’s first superintendent, Major Logan, proposed the idea of a “transmountain road” over the Continental Divide in 1910. Many routes were suggested which involved 15 switchbacks zigzagging up Logan Creek. In 1924, a new and better route was suggested along the Garden Wall that required only one switchback, offered more views, and would melt out earlier. This road was a monumental feat of engineering and was expensive and time-consuming to build. Workers had to blast a 192 foot tunnel, build three bridges, and one switchback as well as construct miles of retaining wall and guardrail-to carve the road into the face of the Garden Wall. Later Triple Arches was designed and built on the fly. Below is the tunnel, retaining wall and Triple Arches.

The weather hasn’t cooperated for us to go hiking and one hike we particularly wanted to take has been closed due to bear activity. Hopefully the weather and bears will improve and we can take that hike! We took a hike to St. Mary Falls and also to Virginia Falls which was another mile further up the mountain. Both were beautiful and the hike was fun and not too challenging. The hike starts at the St. Mary Falls Shuttle stop about 10 miles inside the east entrance to the park off the Going to the Sun Road. When we descended towards the falls we passed an area that was burned during the Reynolds Creek Fire in 2015. We passed the St. Mary River and then could hear the thunder of crashing water as we arrived at the St. Mary Falls; a truly spectacular waterfall in the park. We continued the trail for a little less than a mile and arrived at Virginia Falls another amazing waterfall. There were smaller ones along the way which gave us an opportunity to stop and take a break and admire the waterfalls.

St Mary Falls and the beautiful color of the water.

St. Mary River.

Virginia Falls

Cloudy day in the park.

Fireweed growing in the burned areas.

St Mary Falls

People walking along the hike for size comparison.

Walking along the hike.

Return walk from the hike.

The beginning of the hike through the burned area.

The water in the lakes is an unusual turquoise blue caused by ground up bits of rock and sediment referred to as “glacial flour”. The movement of the glaciers nearby erodes the bedrock and provides a continuous source of “flour” to the lakes. The color isn’t photoshopped in!!! Part of the hike takes you through a forest of firs, spruces, and cedars gracing the west end of St. Mary Lake. It smelled like Christmas on the hike!! We even saw a moose in the lake on our return trip back to the car.

Tomorrow the weather proves promising for a hike or two and our hike we wanted to take at Logan Pass has now been opened!!