A Day of Waterfalls

Trailhead

Cooper was dropped off at the Ranch promptly at 7:40 AM and off we headed towards the Park.  Today we decided we’d head out to a couple of waterfalls.  Of course we forgot both our bear spray and bells…we had our hiking poles so Cindi made her plan of whacking any bears over the nose.  Yeah, that’s sure to work.  We figured with the large amount of use the trail experienced we’d be fine. 



The trail was an easy path with only 260 feet in elevation drop to the first fall…St Mary.  Odd to hike down to see a waterfall.   Lots of water was still coming over the falls from the still melting snow pack.  Although the trail was heavily travelled we were able to find quiet spots along the trail to take some interesting pictures of flowers.  Most people seemed to stop at St Mary, but we headed on towards Virginia Falls.  We had to see that one for the obvious reason…it was stunning. 

St Mary's Fall

 

We had seen a large fall from the road a few days back and thought it had to be St Mary…wrong as it turns out.  It  was actually Virginia Falls.  The fall was about one-half mile away from St Mary.  We hiked back up 285 feet…a piece of cake hike.  We thought Virginia was far more spectacular with its split face and lots of water. Unfortunately the pictures did not do it justice due to the spray blowing around.  The camera just could not deal with all the vapor in the bright sunshine.  We headed back towards Logan’s Pass and stopped off for lunch to investigate another possible hike.  This one is interesting since the landscape is more desert like…even though it follows a snow melt creek.  If we can make it far enough we may catch a glimpse of Grinnell Glacier on the backside.  Now we’re off for pizza and beer!



Virginia Falls

The only animal we found & it is not a bear

Virginians at the Virginia Falls