The falls (pun intended) July 3, 2014

At St. Mary Falls

Skies were cloudy when we got up this morning, but it did appear that the smoky haze of yesterday had cleared. After breakfast, with skies clearing, and temperatures warming to the 70s, we headed out to check out the Going to the Sun road, the road that transverses the park. It had been closed for winter, and had been partly opened after snow clearing on both the east and west sides as of yesterday when we had checked the park website.  When we checked in yesterday, we were told that the road had opened all the way through the previous evening. Great timing on our part...

Because of construction, the road in many (most) places was gravel, and very dusty. The trailhead for one of the trails we wanted to follow was closed due to this construction, so we opted to do the St. Mary and Virginia Falls trail. Because of heavy snowfall this past winter, all the falls were roaring. On this trail there are actually 4 sets of falls, 2 of which are unnamed. And the views from the trail were, as we expected, fabulous. When we approached the end of the trail at Virginia Falls, there was

a spur to take you to a scenic view of the falls. We took the spur, and were rewarded with a great view, and a shower of mist from the falls. At this point, Ray found the path to continue on up to the falls. It was overgrown with brush, and very steep and slippery, due to the shower from the falls. At one point, we had to cross a stream. Ray managed to cross OK, but mid-crossing, I slipped on a wet log, and was upended, landing with a muddy splat. With muddy and wet shoes, shirt, pants and socks, I righted myself, and we continued on to the falls. Lo and behold at the falls, we found the actual trail that we should have taken. We should have backtracked when we were done at the view area, rather than continuing on from there. Now we know.

After the hike, we took a few short jaunts down trails off the GTS road.

Sunrift Gorge

Then we headed back to the cabin for a glass of wine and then dinner at the Park Cafe, just down the road from the campground. After dinner, we took a stroll around the campground. Tomorrow we'll head to a different section of the park.