First Light at Swiftcurrent Lake

For a week in July, I visited Glacier National Park in northern Montana.  While Glacier is a unique place in the national park system, only a very small part of the park is actually covered by glaciers themselves these days.  The glaciers are smaller than what you would find in Canada and Alaska and they are continuing to get smaller.  In 1850, the area now comprising the national park had 150 glaciers, but today there are 25 active glaciers remaining in the park. The definition of a glacier is a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface.  Many of the original glaciers have disappeared or been reduced to permanent or semi-permanent snowfields that have become stationary, thus no longer defined as a glacier.  Despite this gradual change, the park is an incredible place to see and photograph.  There are many glacial carved valleys, colorful lakes and shapely mountains in the park.  One of the most popular overlooks is from just above Logan Pass on the famous Going To The Sun Road.  Here you hike to the overlook of Hidden Lake and Bearhat Mountain. 

This might be the most popular trail in the park...and for good reason.  Not only do you get a great view for relatively little effort, but you also will likely see mountain goats that come up close to you right along the trail.  

Bearhat Mountain Goat

If you can tolerate the crowds and sometimes even bumper to bumper traffic on Going To The Sun Road, mid-July is one of the best times to see Glacier National Park.  By then, enough of the snow has melted to allow for wildflowers to be in full bloom...including beargrass.  These large, showy white flowers have the appearance of giant Q-tips in the wild, or something that would appear in a Dr. Suess book.  Beargrass is a common wildflower found in Glacier National Park and this year has produced prolific blossoms thanks to a higher than average snowpack this winter and warmer than average temperatures so far this summer. The plant was first called beargrass by members of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Beargrass is not a grass and actually not even consumed by bears but sheep, deer, elk, and goats are known to eat beargrass.  However, bears will use these leaves as denning material.

The pink flowers next to this beargrass above Grinnell Lake are known as Pink Spirea. The hike up to Grinnell Glacier is in my opinion one of the most scenic trails that I have been on in a national park. After leaving Many Glacier Hotel, I boarded the ferry that goes across Lake Josephine (pictured below) to access the Grinnell Glacier Trail that goes above Lower Grinnell Lake (also pictured below).  Lake Josephine Lower Grinnell Lake

Lower Grinnell Lake is among one of the most colorful lakes I have seen as the teal color comes from glacial silt, a suspension of fine particles of limestone (calcium carbonate) ground up by glacial movement. The hike leads to Upper Grinnell Lake and Grinnell Glacier.  The lake (pictured below) has been newly formed within the last 100 years due recent melt from Grinnell and Salamander Glacier.  

Upper Grinnell Lake

Another great hike is up to Iceberg Lake (pictured below).  Iceberg Lake is a bit lower in elevation and does not have as much ice as Upper Grinnell Lake, but still has some leftover icebergs in it.  It is believed that if current warming trends continue, there will be no glaciers left in the Glacier National Park by 2030. You can find more about the change in these glaciers from this article from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/24/climate/mapping-50-years-of-ice-loss-in-glacier-national-park.html

Iceberg at Iceberg Lake   Iceberg Lake

While wildlife and spectacular mountain scenery with lakes is the highlight of photography at Glacier, some of my favorite photographs were from along the streams.  So many waterfalls, colorful rocks and beautiful water formations!  

Saint Mary Falls, Montana Avalanche Creek. Montana