Note to self: bring warmer thicker sock next time. The mornings are chilly, and thin summer socks are just not cutting it.
At last, the park! This morning we entered — us and several hundred others. Getting in early does not pay off — as we found, coming into the park late reaps more rewards. First impressions were rough — many view the visitor station was not impressive or terribly informative. They must assume that we have googled the park to death — when actually we are looking for ranger recommendations for hikes (not blogging adrenaline junkies) — and admittedly we are looking for easy to start with.
In the end we chose to orient ourselves slowly by taking Going-to-the-Sun Road, which was fairly jammed with people like ourselves. But that’s where the magic began. The haze became more manageable and we gave ourselves over to the wonder of what we were seeing.
Colorado may have taller peaks (14,000 feet elevation), but Montana’s are no less impressive or grand at 10,000+. What I did not expect were the teal colored lakes — Lake McDonald, and St. Mary Lake, just to name two along the way. Over the course of about three hours we traversed the park from narrow edge to narrow edge, driving slowly, the panoramic sunroof open to allow the view above us as well as beside us. We stopped frequently for photos because each corner brought new spectacular views. (Yes there was still a haze, but how can you not take pictures, however flawed?)
Once on the east side of the park, we drove on to the town of St. Mary’s for a hearty lunch at Johnson’s Café (highly recommended — nothing like photography to work up an appetite). Then we turned around and worked our way east to west, this time not so nutty about pictures, but more about savoring the drive in different light which brought out different features. We drove in rain for a brief time, and watched with amusement as occupants of the red bus tours scrambled to put up their cloth roofs. Then we were back in sun for the rest of the day.
We finally stopped at the Trail of Fallen Cedars to hike for an hour or two (because we could get parking late in the day). The trail was just beautiful because it ran alongside a rushing stream with waterfalls over the complicated parts, and of course we were among many fallen cedars, at times the woods quite still, dark and spooky. The trail went uphill (don’t they all?) and we trudged and photographed our way along. We did not make it all the way to Avalanche Lake, though we may return tomorrow to finish it.
Tonight we crash early, surprisingly tired. The sun is still shining when I drop off.
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