After a wonderful night's sleep in the cabin, we woke to a glorious morning--bright blue skies and as can be expected in these altitudes, a bit on the cool side-- in the 50s. It was promising to be a warm day.
Our first foray into Glacier National Park was a hike to Virginia Falls and back that took us along the edge of St. Mary Lake. It was a 6 mile hike that was fairly easy, but had fabulous payoffs for the sights along the way. Views of the mountains, the green-blue lake, and hillsides covered with wildflowers were everywhere. Ray and I each took a camera, and between us, we took about 120 pictures. One result of Ray taking a camera is that now you'll have proof that I actually came on this trip (there are photos of me). Along the trail, we came upon several waterfalls and streams that were swollen with the melt from this winter's massive snowfall.
After the hike, we drove up to Logan Pass, the midpoint of the Going to the Sun Road. The park had just opened the road for the first time yesterday. On June 11th, Glacier had a snowstorm that caused 25 avalanche paths that buried the road that had already been cleared. See a photo here of what the road looked like as late as June 23. As a matter of fact, there were jersey barriers up on parts of the road where the edge and wall had been destroyed. At the visitor's center at Logan Pass, the snow was still 8 feet high in places.
In the evening, we attended a talk given by one of the rangers on how the railroads opened up Glacier, and the automobile developed it. Pretty interesting.
See photos for today here. Til tomorrow...
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