Hello fellow travelers. I hope to get caught up to my travels to Indy. There were a lot of great places that I stopped and even more that I had to pass on by. Too much to see and just enough time to scratch the surface.
A final note on my stay in Browning on the reservation. I had seen coyotes as early as Nevada but I have not heard them in the wild - until Friday night. It was overcast so I did not get to see many stars in Montana, I did get a treat and actually hear some coyote barking and a few howls. Quite a treat. Now if there were just some buffalo roaming, the picture would have been complete. Alas it will take a couple of more days until I get to the Black Hills in South Dakota until I see some wild buffalo - but the coyote sounds were cool!
After working on the Par Fleche bag Saturday morning by finishing the stitching and beginning the fringe, it was time to say goodbye to Darrell and head towards Glacier National Park. I waited longer than originally planned to leave the Blackfeet Reservation because there was a lot of fog and the park was socked in in the morning. By the time I left around noon, the fog had lifted but the clouds still blocked the highest peaks.
I had changed my original plans and came to Glacier National Park because of glaciers are disappearing. When the park opened 80 years ago there were 125 glaciers in the park - today there are only 25 and dwindling. My hopes are to see a glacier. And away we go....
My delayed leaving until June 1 I had hoped that most of the cold would be gone so I could do some camping along the way. I knew I would still see snow on the mountain tops and the cold did for the most part stay away, but the rained started following me in Reno and has not left. If it does not rain tomorrow, June 17th, that will be the first time I have not had rain for 2 days. The longest so far is about 30 hours, if no rain tomorrow, it will be almost 48 hours. The storms in Indiana have been loud and very windy. But more on that in couple of posts from now. But if you want to be able to see Glacier National Park, a trip in July may be more appropriate. I am sure it will be more crowded, but probably worth the wait to be able to see it in all of its glory. The water falls will still be running but I would imagine that days would be clearer and the roads would be open all the way from entry point to entry point. Yosemite is beautiful and Glacier National Park is very close if not more so with all of the glaciers.
The trip into Glacier National Park was very beautiful. They had a fire in 1996 that still scars the landscape heading into the park. It burned right up to the front door, but it did not do much damage that I could see in the park itself. It was cold and the pass was closed to the West entrance. They opened the road to the first glacier, but I did not get a good look at it as it was socked in by the clouds. It was raining as I got out of the car and took the picture - the bottom one closest to the first paragraph. It was a great view, but I have seen a glacier before they are all gone!
On the way back to the car, I saw some wild life - a deer eating some Spring shoots. It was just turning to Spring this high up. The trail to St. Marys Falls was more like a brook with the Spring run off rather than a trail, but it just made me want to come back. With a little more time and a little less rain, there is another falls further on from St. Marys but it was time to get back down the mountain so I could get to Helena.
The scenery was just spectacular. The falls, the clouds and mountains and even the burned area was spectacular. Not just that it was burned, but over such a large area and I was surprised that the fire happened in 1996 and there so little recovery that I could see.
The picture above the one of St. Marys Falls is turned sideways. It has a heart shape at the top and I thought you could see it better while it was still turned sideways better than if I turned it upright. You will also see a picture of a flat mountain top that obviously has had a serious slide sometime in its lifetime, but not very recently. That picture also shows the fire damage, with the top picture showing the most fire damage. Just a wonderful place. Well worth a weeks time all by itself. The Western entrance near Kalispell is supposed to be more spectacular.
Thanks for traveling along with me - now on to Helena before it gets too late in the day.
Michael
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