Glacier NP 4: Grinnell Glacier

Here's a picture Rosie took during our Highline hike which I should have included in the last post.


Okay, next day we got up pretty early, mixed up some Cafe Bustelo with cold water and powdered milk, and headed over the pass. On the east side of the Pass:

Note, when camping with Rosie, fashion is always priority number one.

Wild Goose Island in Saint Mary Lake. No one else has ever taken a photo from this exact spot.

Sherburn reservoir. After I took this, I could hear some rustling in the bushes below. I clapped my hands and a bear stuck his head up over the bushes and looked right at me. I got back in the car quick.

The Many Glacier Hotel.

Waiting for a boat which will ferry us across the lake, then a short walk, then another boat across the next lake. On the first boat ride, we saw an albino grizzly bear (from a long distance) on the mountainside, very rare and maybe sacred to natives.

The beginning of our hike from the upper lake boat dock, visible across the water.

Click below for more.....



Cool colored rocks.

 

 Grinnell Lake (lower).

These rocks look as if they were airbrushed or graffito-tagged. See http://mountainbeltway.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/rocks-of-glacier-national-park/ for an explanation.

A waterfall along the trail.

Sticking my head in to cool off.

Three lakes in a row: Swiftcurrent Lake in the far distance, where the big hotel is, then Lake Josephine, then Grinnell Lake.

Pat was there too.

Cool rock.

Another view of the three lakes.

Then we saw a bunch of bighorn sheep, but they weren't beutiful enough to have their picture in my blog.

Then we popped up over a moraine and had a great view of Grinnell Glacier and Upper Grinnell Lake.

On the other side of that line of mountains (also forming the Continental Divide) is the Highline, where we were hiking the previous day.

Some people hangin' by some icebergs.

Very cold water.

Salamander Glacier up high there.

A view of the gravelly moraine which forms the downstream wall of the lake.

Oooh, what's this in the water?

BAM!

A bighorn sheep.

Majestically chewing grass. 

A rock which looks like someone sprayed it with silly string. This whole thing is rock hard though.

Wavy layers in the rock reflecting rippled underwater silt layers which were subsequently buried and petrified. We can see a cross section of the ripples in some layers. Maybe, I'm no expert. 

Very green due to the silty glacial runoff.

 Another sheep.

HAHAHA!!!

Rosie and I both thought of this at the same time, but I insisted on it.

Ok. 

Back down toward Josephine Lake.

 Cool tree.

Wicked cool rock which looks like some sort of gemstone or stained glass, or like the type of Scottish jewelery which consists of grasses and reeds compressed together with laquer and polished. 

Back down on Swiftcurrent Lake.

A nice hotel.

But not as nice as the Old Faithful Inn.

Back over Going to the Sun to the west side of the park.

Bird Woman Falls at center.

Fancy cloud.

Fancy moon.

Then a primitive dinner at our campsite and then sleep.