Day 3: Driving from West Glacier to Many Glacier (August 17, 2009)

We checked out of the Glacier Highland Resort to move to another area of the park. We picked up some huckleberry muffins from the Glacier Highland and espresso at the coffee truck in West Glacier and headed to the Lake McDonald Lodge to meet the girls. The huckleberry muffins were awesome: sweet, tart and tasty! Maggie and Molly had the next 3 days off and would be joining us in the Many Glacier/Swiftcurrent Valley and subsequently Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. First on the agenda would be traversing the Going-to-the-Sun Road across Logan Pass and down to St. Mary.

Since the girls had to be back to work in a few days, we had to take separate cars. It was still a bit overcast as we drove up to the pass. At the Logan Pass Visitor Center, we took the 3 mile round trip trail to the Hidden Lake Overlook. True to its name, the lake was quite hidden (photo on left). There were a few breaks in the clouds allowing us to catch brief glimpses of the waters below. The boardwalk out to the lake and back was engulfed in fog.

On the drive down the East side of the road, we stopped at a few different view points. One of the stops included a 3.6 mile hike to St. Mary and Virginia Falls. The short hike was nicely forested and we were able to sample some berries along the way. There’s a short of the girls (Maggie, Molly and Mary) at one of the falls on the right. Another stop we made was at the Wild Goose Island Overlook. Wild Goose Island it a tiny dot of land in the midst of St. Mary Lake (photo on left).

Before exiting the park on the East, we stopped at the St. Mary Visitor Center. This is where we talked to a ranger and deduced that it was in fact a wolverine we had spotted on the Highline Trail the previous day. We were pleasantly surprised to see an active osprey nest next to the parking lot. There were at least 2 nearly grown juveniles in the nest, and I caught one of the adults hovering at the edge of the nest (photo on right).

Just outside the East entrance of the park is the town of St. Mary. It’s a small town but has a highly recommended restaurant called Park Cafe. We stopped there for lunch. The menu is a bit eclectic with various international wraps and sandwiches, but they are known for their pie. We all enjoyed our meals and each sampled a slice of pie.

Driving North from St. Mary, we headed for the Swiftcurrent Valley. This area of the park has its own entrance and 7 miles of road into the valley. The Many Glacier Lodge and Swiftcurrent Motor Inn are located in this valley. This area of the park is known as Many Glacier due to the lodge and its proximity to a number of the park’s glaciers.We checked in to the Swiftcurrent and relaxed a bit while the girls tried to track down a couple friends.

After the break, we took a short 3.6 mile stroll to Red Rock Lake (on left) and Falls (on right). After the stroll, we drove back out of the park looking for wildlife ,and eventually made our way to the Two Sisters Cafe for dinner. We had a nice relaxing dinner to top off a nice relaxing day.

More pictures from Day 3.

Day 4: Hiking to Ptarmigan Tunnel and Iceberg Lake (August 18, 2009)

We had been planning to hike to Grinnell Glacier, but the trail was closed due to bear activity. Instead, we decided on hiking to Ptarmigan Tunnel and Iceberg Lake, a 14.6 mile journey. We had a quick breakfast of bagels and a few items the girls foraged from the employee dining room (EDR). One nice thing about staying at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn was that the trailhead was just outside our door. We were on the trial by 9:40am.

This was really 2 different hikes that started at the same trailhead. The trails share a couple miles climbing out of the Swiftcurrent Valley (picture on left) then fork in two different directions. We took the fork to Ptarmigan Tunnel first, since it was the harder hike. We were looking a a climb of a couple thousand feet over the next few miles. It would remain to be seen if we would still have the energy for Iceberg Lake on our return.

The hike to Ptarmigan Tunnel started climbing for about a mile, then leveled out a bit. There we many wildflowers along the trail, including some late season bear grass (tall flowers in picture on right). We reached Ptarmigan Lake around 11:30am. From there we had to ascend a few long, steep switchbacks to reach the tunnel high on the surrounding cliffs. At the top of the climb we had our picture taken (photo on left: Molly, Maggie, Mary and Ed). You can see a bit of Ptarmigan Lake behind us.

Ptarmigan Tunnel (on right) was built for hiking and horseback access to the Belly River Vally on the other side of the crest. It is tall enough for a person to ride through on horseback. I’m not sure why they didn’t just add another switchback or two to reach to cross over the crest rather than going through. Perhaps the rock was too unstable above. We did see a family of bighorn sheep bounding around up there. From the other end of the tunnel we had a beautiful view of the Belly River Valley and Lake Elizabeth (on left).

After enjoying the view and climbing around on the rocks a bit (mainly Maggie), we headed back through the tunnel and down the switchbacks to the lake where we stopped for lunch. There were a number of other people on the trail, especially since the Grinnell Glacier trail was closed. There were even a few backpackers heading for Lake Elizabeth. One guy, looking a bit worse for the wear, asked us if it was worth hiking to the tunnel. He said it was only worth it if the view was spectacular. None of us were ready to lay such a claim. I’m not sure if he ended up going to the top or not.

After lunch we retraced our steps back to the fork in the trail. As we were deciding wheter or not to continue up to Iceberg Lake, another group was deciding if they wanted to go to Ptarmigan Tunnel. We talked them into it. We were still feeling pretty good, so we headed up the trail to Iceberg Lake. We were excited to hear that a moose with a calf had been spotted along the trail. By the time we reached the area where the moose was spotted, it had moved. Fortunately it and the calf were still visible from the trail (photo on right). This was Molly’s first moose siting, and we were happy to be there to share it with her.

Iceberg Lake, as the name implies, fills with large chunks of ice as the spring thaw starts to break down the ice and snow on the cliffs above. Along with the ice comes a fine silt of ground rock which clouds up the water. The cloudy water, called glacier milk, produces an amazing milky blue color. By mid-August there wasn’t much ice left in the lake, though the water was plenty icy. We had another snack, posed for a few pictures, watched the squirrels and chipmunks scurry around looking for leftovers, then headed back down the trail. The last couple miles seemed to drag on forever, but eventually we made it. We were back at our room by 5 or 5:30pm. This would turn out to be our longest single hike of the trip.

After showering and resting a bit, Mary and I had dinner at the Swiftcurrent while the girls hit the EDR. After dinner, we decided to take another drive along the road looking for wildlife. We stopped at a pullout not far from the Many Glacier Lodge and Maggie yells out “bear!” We’re all looking across the river from where we’re parked thinking there’s no way she spotted a bear when we all realize a black bear is only about 15 feet away from the car. We watched it eat berries until it eventually wandered off in the fading light. Yet another great end to a great day!

More pictures from Day 4.

Day 2: Hiking the Highline Trail (August 16, 2009)

We awoke at our hotel in West Glacier to an overcast sky. Undaunted by the weather, we packed our rain gear in the car and headed into the park. We drove up the Going-to-the-Sun Road as far as The Loop, then caught the park shuttle (photo on right) to Logan Pass. We were planning to hike the Highline Trail from Logan Pass to the Granite Park Chalet, then down to The Loop. The hike is 11.6 miles.

When we arrived at Logan Pass around 10:30am, we were in a blanket of fog. There was a chance of thunderstorms in the forecast, so we stopped at the visitor center to ask a ranger is we should be concerned. The ranger said that we should be fine, though he did recommend we carry pepper spray in the event we encounter a hostile bear. We purchased a canister, donned our rain shells and hit the trail.

The Highline Trail starts just across the road from the Logan Pass information sign. It proceeds below the face of the Garden Wall (photo on right). We we still in the fog, but it wasn’t raining at that time. One short section of the trail has a steep drop-off, so they have installed a cable along the wall to hold on to for extra security. In the fog, we couldn’t even tell there was much of a drop.

One nice thing about the weather is that there was running water everywhere. Most of this took the form of cascading falls (photo on left). There were also many different wildflowers in the various pockets of vegetation. We encountered a lot of wildlife along the trail as well, including bighorn sheep (on right), marmot, pikas, deer, mountain goats and even a wolverine. We weren’t sure about the wolverine until we discussed it with a ranger the following day.

It was still foggy when we encountered the mountain goat pictured on the left. It was with a really cute goat kid. The kid seemed to have so much energy, hopping and running around. It’s amazing how easily they navigate the rocky cliffs. It was fun to watch.

It started to rain while we as we were nearing the chalet. Even with the fog and the rain, we had some beautiful views (Lake McDonald on the right). The rain was coming down pretty good by the time we reached the chalet, so we decided to stop for lunch and wait it out. We ate our sandwiches on the porch of the chalet (it was actually too hot inside). We chatted with some other hikers while we waited. Eventually, the rain subsided and we even saw a bit of sun.

We only had about 4 more miles down to the Loop. Most of this section of the trail was forested. There were berried everywhere. We sampled some of the berries. The thimbleberries are quite tasty. They look like a flatter, bowl-shaped raspberry. They taste similar too, sort of a more intense raspberry. We also tried what we thought were huckleberries, but turned out to be service berries (or Saskatoons). They are ok, but a little bland.

It turns out we were not the only ones enjoying the berries. We ran across a grizzly eating berries on the trail (photo on right). Fortunately we were had run across a few hikers a short time before, so we were not alone. We made some noise so the bear would be aware of us, but it was fairly indifferent. Eventually it had picked-clean the bush near the trail and ambled off down the slope. We made it to the Loop and our car a short time later. It turns out none of the groups that finished the hike shortly after us even saw the bear.

It was after 6pm by the time we were heading back down the Going-to-the-Sun Road. We stopped for a quick stroll around the Trail of the Cedars (photo on left). This trail is less than a mile, mainly on a boardwalk.The trees and the ferns are quite nice. After our stroll we headed to the Lake McDonald Lodge, where we encountered another bear (photo on right).

We had dinner with Maggie at Jammer Joe’s Grill at the lodge. Molly had to work the front desk until 11pm. Fortunately, the girls would have the next three days off. Mary and I headed back to our hotel to sleep. We would be back in the morning to pick up the girls and head to the Many Glaciers area in the Swiftcurrent Valley.

More pictures from Day 2.

On August 15-23, Mary and I went on a trip to Glacier National Park (with a side trip to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada). The primary motivation for the trip was to visit with my nieces, Maggie and Molly, who were working at the Lake McDonald Lodge for the summer. Over the course of the trip we drove nearly 700 miles and hiked for 70 miles. We saw lots of wildlife, great views and a generally awesome trip. We really enjoyed visiting and hiking with Molly and Maggie. I’m really glad they inspired us to visit. This is the start of the blog for the trip. A full set of photos are in the gallery.

We started our trip early Saturday morning, catching a flight from San Jose to Seattle to Kalispell, MT. The flight from Seattle to Kalispell was on a Bombardier Q400 turboprop airplane operated by Horizon. It’s one of the larger prop planes I have been on. While landing in Kalispell, we could already see the Rocky Mountains of the park to the northeast. It was a cool, overcast day, but we were excited to finally arrive. We picked up our rental car from Alamo (a Nissan Rogue) and headed for West Glacier.

West Glacier is a small town just outside the park on the southwest side. We checked into our hotel, the Glacier Highland Resort. From there we drove into the park. Our first stop was the Lake McDonald shore (picture on right). From there we drove to the lodge to see Maggie and Molly. They were finishing up with their shifts for the day, so we waited at the lodge. Once they both got off, we headed up to Logan Pass along the Going-to-the-Sun Road. We stopped at a pull-off for McDonald Creek (photo on left) along the way.

The Going-to-the-Sun Road passes through the heart of Glacier National Park, crossing the Continental Divide at Logan Pass. Part way up to the pass, there’s a sharp turn in the road, simply called The Loop. From there the road crosses the face of a range known as the Garden Wall (see picture at the top of this  post). There are waterfalls and creek crossing all along the road. At one point called the Weeping Wall, the water spill directly from the rock. Though it was cloudy, the views were spectacular.

At Logan Pass, there are carpets of wildflowers in an area known as the Hanging Garden (picture on right).We walked around a bit near the visitor center. The wind was icy cold so we decided not to venture too far. On the ride back down to Lake McDonald, we saw some mountain goats along the road and stopped for some snapshots (on left). We had a nice dinner at Eddie’s Cafe in Apgar (Almost Everyone Eats Here) then dropped the girls off at LMD. Back at our room, we tried to get some sleep, anticipating our first hike at Glacier.

More pictures from Day 1.

To be continued…

Over the Independence Day 3-day weekend, Mary and I decided to head out on a backpacking adventure. This was our first backpacking trip of 2009. We had been wanting to do an early season trip in the Hetch Hetchy area of Yosemite for some time, but the trails weren’t so clear until recently. Hetch Hetchy is the lesser known sister to Yosemite Valley. Hetch Hetchy has a lot of the same features: sheer cliffs, waterfalls, and massive domes. There is one main difference, the O’Shaughnessy Dam, which turned the Hetch Hetchy valley floor into a huge reservoir. We had only day-hiked here once before. For the 3-day weekend, we decided on a rather ambitious (for us, anyway) 27 mile loop. A full set of pictures are in the Gallery and an annotated map is on Google Maps.

July 3: Hetch Hetchy to Lake Vernon

We decided to drive up to the park on the first day of the trip rather than the night before. We left home around 5am, and after stopping for coffee and snacks along the way, we arrived in Hetch Hetchy around 9:30am. After checking in at the ranger station to get our wilderness permit, we drove down to the backpackers parking area. After a quick bathroom break (the last for a couple days!) we were ready to hit the trail at 10:30am.

From the parking area it was about a 0.5 mile walk to the O’Shaughnessy Dam (pictured on left). The dam blocks the flow of the Tuolumne River creating the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (on right) which provides water and electricity to San Francisco 200 miles away. Apparently there has always been some contention about this dam, and there is talk of dismantling it even today.

Our first day’s goal was Lake Vernon, 10 miles away and 3,000 feet up. The trial starts by crossing over the dam. From the dam there are great views both across the reservoir and down the Poopenaut Valley hundreds of feet below. It was nice to see the reservoir fairly full, though it is still early in the Summer. There are lots of swallow zipping around as you cross the dam. We even saw a nest at the mouth of the tunnel at the far end. The trail proceeds through the tunnel and continues along the north side of the reservoir.

After hiking along the reservoir for a mile or so, we turned up the trail to Laurel Lake and Miguel Meadow. The next couple miles were composed of relentless switchbacks. Other hikers on the trail were talking about a bear sighting in the vacinity, so we had our eyes peeled. We were lucky enough to spot an adult female and her cub 20 feet above us on a grassy outcrop.We watched the bears casually browsing on vegetation for 15-20 minutes before continuing. There are more pictures of the bears in the gallery and a short video on YouTube.

During the long, hot climb up the switchbacks, we had some incredible views of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (see left). By the time we reached the junction for Miguel Meadows, we could no longer see the reservoir, and wouldn’t see it again for a couple days. The next 6 or 7 miles were tough but rather uneventful. There was still a fair bit of climbing involved, but at least there were tons of wild flowers and butterflies to keep our mind off the hike.  We passed through Beehive (on right), which is a huge meadow just before the 7 mile mark. We took a break here for a bit before tackling the final 4 miles.

Eventually we crested a rise to enter the Lake Vernon basin (picture on left). By this time it was nearly 6pm and we were starting to run low on water. We were both quite tired and were looking forward to dropping our packs for the day. Unfortunately, I got a little confused by the directions to the nice camp sites on the north west shore of the lake. After hiking some 3/4 miles out of our way, we gave up and headed to the south side of the lake near the main trail. By now we were both out of water so as soon as we hit Falls Creek, which empties Lake Vernon, we moved the minimum 100 feet from the trail and water and set up camp. We filtered some water, had a dinner of rehydrated Santa Fe Chicken and Rice, watched the bats devour some mosquitoes, then turned in for the night.

All photos from day 1.

July 4: Lake Vernon to Rancheria Falls

After a somewhat restless first night, we got up around 8am.Breakfast consisted of instant oatmeal and Thai tea. After filling our water bladders and breaking camp, we set off at 10:30am. Today we would be hiking from Lake Vernon over the ridge of Mount Gibson, though thankfully no where near the peak, down to the Tiltill Valley and finally to Rancheria Falls. We were a bit sore from the previous day, but the climb up the ridge wasn’t too bad. We had great views of Lake Vernon during the climb (see right). At one point we saw a helicopter fly around the lake, finally landing on the north side. I’m not sure what the deal was with that.

The switchbacks up the ridge were dotted with little mini meadows, which were a nice contrast to the otherwise bare granite. The initial climb was steep, but not too long. After that, the trail follows along the ridge for a while. Much of this portion of the trail passes through forests and meadows. Some of the forested areas are covered with lush, green ferns (right). Unfortunately, these lush areas were also infested with mosquitoes. Donning a long sleeve hiking shirt alleviated the worst of the attack, thought the onslaught kept us motivated to press forward. The meadows were full of wild flowers of varying kinds. One small meadow had wall-to-wall purple carpet (lower right).

The drop down from the ridge is fairly steep and the sun was hot. We met a number of backpackers struggling up the opposite direction.along the route we could hear the whomp whomp whomp of the blue grouse. What an interesting sound. From here the trail entered into the Tiltill Valley (left) with its wide meadows. This valley is one of the reasons we put off hiking the trail so long. Up until a few weeks before, you would have to wade across the meadows in thigh-deep water. Even as it was, we had plenty of mud and muck to traipse through.

One the climb out of the Tiltill valley, Mary spotted a snake crossing the trail. It ended up being a decent sized rattlesnake (left). We gave it plenty of room, but it seemed quite content sunning on the side of the trail. getting impatient, but a little nervous to pass so close to the rattler, we tried tossing some sticks and rocks. I think we only managed to peak its interest as it seemed to strike a hunting pose. The rattle never sounded, so I assume it was barely even aware of us. Eventually it moved off the trail and we continued forward. That was pretty much our only wildlife encounter of the day, though this one was a little closer than we would have preferred.

Crossing the final ridge we started heading down toward the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Rancheria Falls. The day was hot and we were getting tired again, so we were pretty happy to see the reservoir appear in the distance (left), and eventually Rancheria Creek. We reached the Rancheria camping area at 4:45pm, again running low on water. We dropped our packs in a campsite and sat by the creek resting and filtering water. The cold water felt good on sore feet. After a dinner of rehydrated Curry Cashew Chicken, we decided to turn in early and save exploring the falls for the following day.

All photos from day 2.

July 5: Rancheria Falls to Hetch Hetchy

The second night was a bit more restful than the first. Since we had turned in early, we were up a bit after 6am. While heading away from camp with trowel in hand, we saw a huge buck run through the camp. After a breakfast of instant oatmeal and Vietnamese coffee, we hiked a bit back up the trail to a footbridge further up Rancheria Creek (left). From there we hiked back down to the camp then explored the nearby Rancheria Falls (right). We encountered a nude man bathing at the edge of the river and had no choice but to continue right past him to get to the falls.

We were on the trail by 9am for our last day of backpacking. After hiking along the cascading Rancheria Creek, we were quickly rewarded with beautiful views of the reservoir. Today would be the flatest hiking, but there were still plenty of ups and downs. As the trail neared the reservoir, we had terrific views of Kolana Rock standing sentry over the waters (right). Inside what would be the valley if it weren’t for all the water, you could definitely see that the scenery could give Yosemite Valley a run for the money.

Across from Kolana Rock is Hetch Hetchy Dome with Falls Creek (the same one that stems from Lake Vernon) tumbling over Wapama Falls on it’s Western side. The previous time we were here was over a Memorial Day Weekend, which is pretty much the high water mark in this part of the Sierras. At that time you didn’t really go across the falls so much as through them. This time around, while the falls were still pretty impressive, we barely felt more than a slight mist as we crossed the bridges. I posted a short video of part of the lower falls on YouTube. This is where we started to run across a lot of day-hikers exploring the trail along the reservoir. After the previous 2 days of hard backpacking, I was thinking they had the right idea.

Before the trip, we had read about rock climbing closures along the reservoir due to peregrine falcon nesting. I was doing my best to watch the sky and cliffs while trying to keep on my feet. I was rewarded when I spotted an osprey zipping past with a peregrine in close pursuit. It all happened so fast, I didn’t have a chance for pictures. Fortunately the osprey circled around causing the peregrine to give chase again. At least I managed a picture of the osprey.

We were on the home stretch now. We were now getting the West side view of the reservoir that we were used to (right). We ran across a couplebackpackers that we had seen on the first day. They camped by Laurel Lake both nights, but happened to hit the junction near the dam at the same time that we did. We chatted with them for the last mile of the trail and back across the dam. We made itback to the car before 1pm. Hot and tired, we had a quick bathroom break then jumped in the car and drove to Evergreen Lodge just ourside the park for cold drinks and and icee.

All photos from day 3.

Over all the trip was quite a challenge. I’m not sure that I’d be interested in such a long backpack adventure in the future, but I guess you never know. For now we can relive the good parts of the journey through the pictures I’ve posted. You can see the full set of pictures in the gallery. Enjoy!

Bay Area Peregrine nest cam watchers have something to get egg-cited about. The nests at San Jose City Hall and the PG&E building in San Francisco both produced eggs within a couple days of each other. On March 12, 2009, Clara and Esteban started their clutch in San Jose, while the San Francisco pair got their start (picture on left) on March 10. I probably won’t have much time to keep track of the San Jose pair this year, but let’s hope both nest have successful hatches!