Rocky Mountain sheep at Glacier National Park

One Last Trip to Logan...then out for a Claw

Mount Oberlin at Logan's Pass

On our last full day in Glacier we decided to head back up to Logan's Pass. We had yet to take the trail up to the Hidden Lake Overlook. A great area to spot both Rocky Mountain sheep and mountain goats. Since the WI-FI has been mostly nonexistent I didn't waste time trying to get a pass the night before our hike. We got up super early & were out of camp before 5:00 AM. 

Cooking breakfast in Logan's parking lot worked so well on our last hike we decided to do it again...despite what looked to be a bit iffy on weather. As we headed up the clouds over the mountains were not moving off as we'd hoped...not a good sign.

We reached Logan's Pass at 6:00 AM with a surprising number of cars already parked. A few souls were napping and others who had dressed in shorts were wrapped in blankets trying to keep warm. The unpredictability of Glacier's weather in full display...wind, rain & chill one minute to be followed by either sun or hail. Weather we've seen many times at the Pass. An attempt was made to start breakfast, but the drizzle would start every time the stove got hooked up. Finally, after our 3rd try we managed to get the eggs, bacon & coffee all done without the wind & rain interference. 

With the weather we decided to wait a bit longer before heading up the trail. Neither of us wanted to get soaked & hoped the clouds would start to move off. Thankfully, it looked like we'd have a window to head up the hill. Off we went...knees a bit tired, but the trail isn't too long or difficult. Of course the decision to leave our hiking poles behind came back to bite us. We should have brought them to traverse across the snow fields...yep, still had several spots on the trail covered by snow. Those areas get quite slick with the sun's warmth & the large number of people walking uphill. 

Rocky Mountain sheep

A small herd of Rocky Mountain sheep were off the trail grazing. Still looking shaggy one decided to cross the boardwalk and head off in front of us. The rest grazed & none of them seemed to notice the people. 

The two larger rams started practicing their head butting technique. I got a headache watching the two rams knock each other silly. 

Rocky Mountain rams head butting

Mountain goat on the rock cliffs of Clements

Mountain goat heading down from Clements

Keeping a lookout for the mountain goats I found a few lounging at the base of Clements Mountain. Then I noticed several up much higher on the rocky ledges. Wish I could run down steep slopes so easily. 

Three goats made their way downhill and towards the trail. All three ignored the people...a few times the people came pretty close to getting run over by the goats. A number of people didn't even notice the goats because their backs were turned exactly as the goats ran across the trail. My motto when there's a possibility of a  critter encounter...head on a swivel!

Mountain goat ewe

Most of the mountain goats were still looking pretty unkept. Their wool is taking its sweet time coming off this year. The three goats that stayed pretty close to the Hidden Lake Overlook Trail looked to be a ewe still hanging with her twin kids from last year. 

The ewe had quite a mess of wool, but the two younger goats were looking much cleaner. She seldom raised her head and kept on grazing. Ignoring everyone & everything, but the grass & flowers.

Yearling goat with beautiful clean coat

Sassy yearling sticks out its tongue

Bill ran into a couple from Virginia while waiting on me to catch up to him. The wife was taken photos and he struck up a conversation with the husband. Bill found out they lived in our old neighborhood in Midlothian and knew a few couples that we knew too. They were on a 2 month adventure visiting the West...hope they are enjoying their journey. 

Bearhat Mountain with grazing mountain goats

After taking a thousand(give or take) pictures of sheep & goats we headed back down to the truck. We're heading back out to Polebridge Mercantile. 

On the bikes we couldn't bring back anything without it getting crushed in the packs. Must get a few claws to take home and a fresh loaf of fruit fritter bread.

 Mouth is watering at the thought!

Oberlin Falls

Deep-throated shooting stars

Mountain goat ewe on a bad hair day

American globeflower

*click photo to enlarge

The Highline

Going-to-the-Sun Road with The Highline(top right)

After taking a day off to recuperate from the 40-mile bike ride we headed up to Logan's Pass to hike our favorite trail...the Highline. The last few years Glacier National Park has instituted a ticket system to access the Going-to-the-Sun Road. We missed out on the initial offering of tickets back in January which sold out in less than 5 minutes. Thankfully, no ticket doesn't mean you can't drive the road you just need to get past the check point before 6:00 AM or after 3:00 PM. 

Someone (Bill) was nervous about the possibility something slowing us down & not reaching the checkpoint before 6:00 AM. He thought we should attempt to get one of the tickets released the night before the hike. I managed to score a ticket despite the extremely slow WI-FI at the visitor center so if that 'someone' overslept it would not be a problem.

We skipped breakfast in the trailer and packed our camp stove along with bacon, eggs & coffee to cook in the parking lot...just like tailgating back in the old days of VT Football. Why...because Logan's Pass parking lot fills quickly and usually well before 7:00 AM. People have definitely 'discovered' Glacier. We left camp before 5:00 AM & headed towards Logan's Pass. Definitely enough early morning light that you could see any critters...like the fox running across as we left camp & a male sage grouse showing off in the middle of Going-to-the-Sun Road. Neither of which we got a chance for a photo...or even a photo of two young mountain goats licking the road just before the parking lot at Logan's Pass. Too much traffic behind us to stop & not one pull-out when you needed it. Oh well...

Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep

Arriving just a smidge past 6:00 AM we noticed that we were no where near first in the lot. Guess those super early birds were there for sunrise & a nap. We parked & pulled out the cooking gear. 

Just as I started cooking a few Rocky Mountain sheep rams wandered through the parking lot. Bill shot a few pictures of them as they moved off into the meadow for their day of gawking from the tourons.

Mount Oberlin (left) from The Highline

We finished breakfast & watched the lot fill by 6:45 AM. Poor souls arriving 'late' circled in vain until some early sunrise hikers returned to their cars. After Bill scored some bug spray...(our repellant got left in the trailer...oopsie) we were ready to hit the trail. Our plan was to hike to Haystack Butte and turn back to Logan's Pass for a total of 8 miles. 

A warmer start to the hike than past hikes, but it was kind of nice not having to start the morning wearing down jackets, hats & gloves. Yes, we packed them because you 'never know' when the Montana 'crazy weather' will show itself. It never did on this hike.

Yellow columbine

Lots of wildflowers were blooming along the trail. It does tend to slow one down in order to take numerous pictures of the various flowers...yellow columbine, beargrass, shooting stars, glacier lily, Indian paintbrush, death camas, anemone, beardtongue, rosy spirea, monkey-flower, bog violets, American alpine speedwell, blanket flower, explorer's genetian, etc. 

I took a photograph of every specimen I could find along the trail.

Quite a few Columbian ground squirrels & marmots made an appearance along with a single mountain goat on rocks above the trail. 

Deep-throated shooting stars

Beargrass

Columbian ground squirrel

Yellow columbine and sitka valerian

Hoary marmot

The Highline's narrow section

The Highline has become an extremely popular hike. If you're afraid of heights there are a few spots that can be very intimidating...especially if a mountain goat happens to be traversing along the inside portion. Our strategy has been to put our back against the rock wall & loop our arms behind the cable and let it pass on the outside. So far that's worked without any problems. 

Our rule for the narrow section is to 'never give the inside' to goats or people for that matter. Otherwise the trail isn't too hard and you can turn back anytime...the views out to Lake McDonald & surrounding mountain peaks are quite stunning. 

Where's the view?

We did run into a couple who asked a rather odd question..."where's the view?" We thought they were kidding since there were views all around us. The lady got quite upset when Bill waved his arm out & said "is there a bad view anywhere?" She started to grill us on "how far to the view?" & "how long will it take to get to it?" At this point we had no idea what she was wanting for "her view" nor any desire to figure it out since she was getting so upset with us.

We pointed behind us toward Haystack Butte, told her it was over a mile away and she'd needed to make her own decision when to turn back for that "other hike" she kept mentioning they wanted to complete. People can be so odd.

Touron with dog on the Highline

Of course things come in threes'...another touron we came across about a mile into the Highline had her dog with them on the trail! Yep, she brought her dog on a hike which is a very big no no...there are multiple signs at the trailhead stating no dogs, but she ignored it. 

We never saw them again so they must have hiked to the Chalet and/or to the Loop. Hopefully a Ranger caught them & explained the rules to them...along with a nice fat ticket. 

Dog on Hidden Lake Trail

Our third touron of the day had a dog on the Hidden Lake Trail at Logan's Pass...the dog was out of control & pulling its owner all over the place. In the process it frightened a mountain goat that was laying on a snow bank close to the trail. 

The goat bolted and thankfully didn't take out anyone on the boardwalk as it ran away from the dog. A Ranger did stop this person from going any further up the boardwalk. First time for everything, but not a fan of people ignoring clearly posted warnings.

Mountain goat chewing his cud

Just as I reached the end of the hike I missed seeing the mountain goat laying on a snow bank. Odd that I'd miss seeing a critter, but I did on this trip. Bill didn't so he shot a few photos before the goat moved off toward the Visitor Center. By that time I had reached the truck, removed my boots & then noticed the goat. I quickly put the boots on & made my way back uphill. 

He was pretty unconcerned about all the people & cars. The Ranger, however, wanted the mountain goat to move on so he shooed it off its perch. Once it was out of sight Bill wandered off to see if he could see any more goats in the meadow and I headed off in the other direction to shoot photos of flowers...again.

Mountain goat watching the activity

Unconcerned mountain goat

Eating a mouthful 

All in all a fantastic day spent hiking along the Highline. Well worth getting up at 4:30 AM. Tomorrow we're thinking we need to hike Hidden Lake Overlook before we head to Polebridge for several take home bear claws...another super early morning heading our way!

Reynolds Mountain & Mount Oberlin from Haystack Butte

Clements Mountain & Mount Oberlin

Snow melt waterfall on Mount Oberlin

Reynolds & Clements Mountain from the Highline

*click to enlarge any picture

Our Day of 'Rest'

McDonald Creek far below GTTS Road

After yesterday's epic 40-miler we took the day off and drove Going-to-the-Sun Road. Figured we'd see what 'trouble' we could find along the way and have lunch in St Mary. I scored a pass for the road so we didn't have to worry about time & could sleep late...haha, once there's light I'm awake others are not quite into rising with the early morning light. At least I can get an extra cup of coffee before he's up for the day.

The Apgar checkpoint moved along quickly although a number of the cars were turned around when they lacked the required pass. It seemed like most were surprised about the need for the pass. No idea why people were so unprepared since it has been widely known a reservation for GTTS Road has been required over the last few years. 

Haystack Falls

As usual all spots were taken at Avalanche for the hike to Avalanche Lake...even spots over a mile away were gone & people walking back to the trailhead. We kept going stopping at various pullouts as we went up GTTS Road. 

The road is a marvel in engineering...it can be a wee bit nerve wracking to be a passenger on the outside looking over the rail. It is a long way down to the valley floor!

Heaven's Peak

 

Heaven's Peak can be seen at many of the pullouts all the way to the top of Logan's Pass. There were a number of snowmelt waterfalls still running next to the road. In some cases across the road. 

One of our favorites isn't a true waterfall...it is called Weeping Wall. The entire expanse of rock has water running off it and dripping into the road. One can get pretty wet driving back down that side of the road...we close the windows, but others drive close to the wall & get pretty wet.

Mountain Goat

As luck would have it we found a lone mountain goat grazing on wildflowers in the last pullout below Logan. Of course the lot was full, but I jumped out for a few photos while Bill drove up to Logan to turn around. The goat didn't stick around too long for its photo shoot. After a few extra minutes searching for wildflowers Bill had returned to pick me up.

We switched drivers at Logan and circled the lot a couple of times looking for a spot while the other used the facilities. As usual there were no empty spots to be found so we continued on toward St Mary.

I see you!

Reynolds & Clements Mountains at Logan's Pass

We found an empty pullout a bit past Logan's Pass. It is perfect spot to capture a great view of Logan's Pass with its two prominent mountains...Reynolds & Clements. 

The waterfall on Reynolds Creek was flowing with lots of water. Nearby another waterfall sprayed onto the roadway. Our cameras don't like to be sprayed so no photos shot in that direction, but lots of people crossed the road to stand under it.

Reynolds Creek Waterfall

We were visited by a number of Columbian ground squirrels looking for a handout...too bad for them we follow the rules. Quite a number of butterflies were feeding on the various wildflowers. There's always something interesting to photograph at this pullout. 

Columbian ground squirrel

Peek-a-boo ground squirrel

Lunch Creek Falls & Pollock Mountain

We passed by our next favorite spot called Lunch Creek...all slots were taken so we kept on moving toward St Mary. Siyeh Bend parking lot was full too, but a spot that never seems to have any cars was totally empty. We didn't wait long though...people stopped while I was shooting photos of butterflies & flowers. They thought I had something bigger & better...later we did indeed find something bigger. 

Walking the road

Cinnamon black bear

When we got back on the road a mile or so down from the pullout a cinnamon black bear was taking a stroll on the road. Thankfully toward us and no cars in front of us. Unfortunately, the sun was in the wrong position for great shots...this turned out to be the only bear we saw during our week in the Park.

No other excitement was found so we headed down 

to St Mary for lunch which turned into an impromptu picnic back in the Park. Finally er snagged a spot at Lunch Creek to try our hand a some waterfall shots and quite a few wildflowers. That was our day off...lots of driving, stopping, photographing, and just enjoying the scenery. 

 Lyall's beardtongue

Clasping twisted-stalk

Blue mustard

Edith's checkerspot

Twinberry honeysuckle

Pioneer violets

Big hike coming tomorrow...The Highline.

*click any picture to enlarge