Glacier is more than a days drive from Fort Peck, so we made another long drive and arrived in Cut Bank, MT late afternoon. Cut Bank is still in the flat plains part of Montana, about an hour from the eastern edge of Glacier National Park. The Riverview campground was pretty nice so we decided to stay two nights to catch up on internet and also see parts of eastern Glacier NP that we likely won't get to with Shannon and Izzy (S&I). We are on a mesa above the Cut Bank River and there was a nice walk along an old road down to the river the first night. Good stop over spot.
The next day we drove to the St Mary Lake Visitor Center to check it out and also find out about a good hike in the Many Glacier area of the park. They have an interesting video on the history of the Going to the Sun Road that was built in the 1930s and the work they are doing to restore the historical road. Then on to the Many Glacier area which is fantastic. It was a really windy day so we ate our picnic lunch in the car overlooking Shelburne Lake and the majectic Rocky Mountain Front Range with many glaciers (hence the name of the area ;-)) Just awe inspiring! Then a pretty hike to Red Rock Lake and Red Rock Falls. On the way back there was a wildlife jam on the trail. That is where lots of people are all stopped looking into the distance and you just know they have spotted some interesting wildlife. This time it was three grizzly bears, a long distance away across the valley up on a high meadow. Exactly where you would want to spot three grizzly bears on a hike. I was able to see one with the binoculars but the others were hiding in the trees by the time I got there. Very Fun.
Next we took a very pretty drive up a winding road overlooking Two Medicine Lakes. We took a short hike in the Medicine Lake area to a lovely waterfall that comes right out of a hole in the mountain. Of course on all our hikes I am making noise like mad to scare the bears away before we come around a corner.
The lakes in the park looked very low with much of the shoreline about 20% low. All of the national park has been affected by climate change. There is no mistaking how low the lakes are and how small the glaciers are compared to 20 years ago. We can even tell the difference from when we were here less than 10 years ago. The projection is that there won't be any glaciers left in the park by 2010. What a loss.\
No comments:
Post a Comment