Glacier National Park

Day 8, July 7th
Distance travelled, not much
Wildlife spotted - a mountain goat.


Our first time waking up and not having to break camp.  We woke up early to the arrival of an enormous truck emptying the bear-proof garbage can near our site.  It is so difficult to open that bin, it must be a testament to the dexterity of the bears in the area.  You have to slide your hand into a narrow opening and push a metal plate down and then lift the whole lid with the back of your hand high enough to get a second hand under it and then up.

We had a leisurely breakfast and people spotted.  It was a national park, so we were fairly close to other sites.  Just down the road from us, an elderly couple sat in the biggest coach RV I have ever seen.  Occasionally, an elderly man wearing cashmere sweatpants would walk up to the garbage can and put one thing in it.  We never saw the woman.  As far as I could see, they never left the RV apart from that. 

I guess money doesn't buy you anything but somewhere nice to sit by yourself.  If you're that kind of person.

Road to Logan Pass.

Later we drove up to Logan Pass on the Rising to the Sun Road.  It meandered along the river and then up through a series of switchbacks past Belton, Oberlin, and countless other peaks, layered one after another like the crest of an ice dragon, all blue and white and grey.

At Logan Pass, there were the usual multitudes of buses, cars, bikes and bicycles that congregate at these sites. We took a few moments to walk in the snow and cool our feet in it before leaving to find a little more solitude back down in the park.

in the afternoon we hiked up to Avalanche Lake.  Of course I was all nervous at first.  It being America, where people sue each other for not warning them that coffee is hot, there were signs everywhere screaming, 'danger - bears'.  But as we passed family groups with children running around nonchalantly I began to feel like a bit of a fool and calmed down.

The hike took us through a cool, green and brown cedar wood.  The trees were massive.  Each one had a unique bark.  We passed one that had been struck by lightening that had hollowed it out and blackened the remaining shell completely.  Even though the day waws very hot, when the trail dipped towards Avalanche Creek the temperature dropped so much it was chilly. 

When we finally got to the lake, it was a picture perfect glacial scene.  The lake glowed green blue under the sun.  At the northern end, four waterfalls thundered down from the avalanche, feeding the lake with ice cold water from the summit.  We sat on a rock and I dipped my feet in the water for the thirty seconds or so it took for them to grow numb.  A young deer hovered near us in the woods, deciding whether or not to draw near.

Avalanche Lake, Glacier National Park

It is heartbreaking to think that by 2020, these glaciers will have disappeared forever and then who knows what wil happen to this eco-system, with its dependence on ice cold water and its fragility in a too-dry environment.  On a selfish level, I am glad that we got to spend that afternoon just sitting there, pulling the heat and coolness and sky and mountains and water into my soul to nourish its eco-system for another year in the world of work and mortgages and silly worries about ridiculous things.

Finally we left, and walked back down through the cedar wood to the campsite to cook supper and sit and watch the endless dusk of the moutnains until finally it was dark and the first star emerged in the chill air.