First Day at Glacier

Cindi's ears were cold

Boardwalk

At O dark thirty (6:00 AM) we got ready and headed off for our day in Glacier and Cooper’s day at Three Dog Ranch.  We noticed a slight chill to the air…a balmy 41 degrees in the campground and upper forties in town.  The tent camper’s bed was definitely warmer than sleeping on the ground…we had hoped that would be the case.  Now if someone could just come up with a snooze alarm for the ravens life would be good...darn birds start screaming at 5:00 AM.

View from top of Logan's Pass trail

 

 

Hidden Lake Overlook

Dropping Cooper off was straight forward they were aware of his need to have 2 legged companions.  Being aware and witnessing the laid back version of Cooper morph into his alter ego…totally different.  He was the office dog until the owner had errands during the naptime closing.  She put him in the daycare run just before leaving when alter ego Cooper reared his crazy self and tried to get out of his dog run.  Thankfully she was able to place him in the alternative boarding area…where he could see someone working and all was well.  She said he settled down and watched TV during 'nap time'.  Monday we're planning another day of hiking in the Park and they are game for another shot at figuring out our Crazy Cooper.

Views from the trail at Logan's

Our day was spent hiking up Logan’s Pass.  The Pass is at an elevation of 6646 feet above sea level and is reached by driving along the Going to the Sun Road*.  The road is closed during the winter months and usually opens by the end of June.  Driving the road is part of the 'experience' of Glacier National Park.  An amazing feat of engineering the road was first completed in 1932 and recently been undergoing a 'facelift'.

The original plan (as much as we plan) was to hike the ridge and bypass the Hidden Lake Overlook.  The Ridge Trail is seldom traveled and the views are simply stunning.  The lack of a crowd is even better.  As it turned out we were so busy watching the Mountain Goat kids run around that we kept going on towards the overlook. 

We heard a few people mention bear and noticed two Park Rangers closing off the Hidden Lake Trail with tape and a Caution Bear Notice.  Once we pulled out the binoculars we found not one but two large (is there any other kind?) Grizzlies.  To be honest Cindi noticed 2 and Bill said she was “a crazy old woman who wasn’t seeing straight”.  Two grizzlies were confirmed by the Park Rangers we spoke with as we hiked back down…haha Crazy Old Woman was RIGHT!

Can you see the Grizzly?

How about now?
 

Our shadow goat

We must have watched the bears and mountain goats for an hour...maybe more who really knows.  After awhile we decided to head off for a shortened version of the ridge hike.  While we were taking our usual 2o,ooo pictures of flowers and mountain vistas we noticed a lone Mountain Goat shadowing us. 

Once he got fairly close we stepped aside to allow him to pass.  He went on ahead and then turned around to wait for us.  We started wondering…is he cahoots with the bears.  Does he bring them unsuspecting humans and then gets safe passage?   
He finally got bored with us and wandered off alone.  No bears showed up and we made our way back down to the car.

 

Checking out the view

Youngster

Posing

You talking to me?

*Check the Flicker Stream for pictures of the snow removal on Going to the Sun Road