Thursday, June 27, 2024 and Friday, June 28, 2004
Down Day - Thursday
I woke up to rain this morning, as predicted. And it continued off and on throughout the day. Plus wind. And fog. We had our first real "down" day. Joe never even got dressed or went outside. I ran to the Jeep once, but otherwise we stayed inside all day. The temperature made it to 54 but cooled off to 47 by the time we went to bed. I don't think we have ever had a day while we were traveling that we stayed inside and did nothing all day. I did cook a pot of ham and beans, but that was about it. Oh, and we got reservations for our next stop, and Joe made an appointment in Bozeman in 3 weeks to get our rear a/c looked at. I'm afraid tomorrow will be much the same, weather-wise.
Back through the Parks - Friday.
The temperature range is 41 to 53 today. It was raining lightly when I got up and the temperature was 42. The wind howled during the night, but it wasn’t windy this morning. But it is gray and dreary, much like yesterday.
And it looks like the mountains got a little more snow last night.
After our day off yesterday, we decided to make a run up to Many Glaciers after breakfast to see if there were any bears playing out in the rain. It’s only 8 miles up to that turn-off. We didn't see anything on the way in, and we couldn't find anything in the binoculars from the deck. It was cold and rainy out there, and nobody was out on the deck, focusing their binoculars so we gave up and went inside. There were 2 pianos in the lobby and occasionally someone, usually a kid, would play a few notes or just plunk around on it.
We went downstairs and got coffee and hot chocolate, and then sat down in the lobby. We would have sat on the hearth of the fireplace, but we weren’t sure we could get up, so here we are.
We never thought we would be these people. We are usually too busy to sit down for long in a place like this. But we have definitely slowed down. A steady stream of traffic flowed through the lobby. Most of them looked like hikers, although there’s probably a good amount that are staying here in the lodge. Here’s another couple, just enjoying the ambience, looking at their phones like us.
We probably sat there for half an hour, and then we headed back out of the park. Still drizzling rain. We never did see anything in the park, so we headed back out to the highway and took the side road to Duck Lake, which was only 4 miles. We turned down the south side of the lake, but it was such a rough road that we didn’t go very far before turning around. The lake itself is a pretty good size. We came back and went down the west side of the lake for a little ways. The road was better, but there didn’t seem to be that much to see so we turned around and gave up on it. There was supposed to be RV Park and cabins, but unless they were further around the lake, we never did see them. There were residences along this side. They could be summer cabins or year-round. We don’t know.
We thought today was gonna be a bust for wildlife, but about 3 miles from the camper. I spotted an eagle in a tree. Our first eagle of the trip -- pretty exciting. This was another turn-around twice so Joe could see it.
We got back to the RV about 1:30. It had warmed up to 51° and the sun was momentarily out, but some dark clouds are lurking. We had to be back at the camper today for a TeleMed conference with our primary doctor. Following that, Joe decided he wanted to go out to dinner. He hadn’t had his fountain Diet Coke all day so I’m sure that was the motivation. We went to four places before we settled on one. The first really only had hamburgers, the second one was at the lodge in St. Mary’s and it was really pricey. The third one was a Mexican place that was a walk-up and sit outside, so we went back to Two Sisters where we had eaten couple days ago after our trip into Canada and had our $60 meal. Then we decided to take a drive back into the main Glacier Park out of St. Mary to see if we could stir up anything at 7 o’clock p.m. We thought that might be a good time. It had rained a little bit back at the camper, but now it’s the nicest that it’s been all day -- 56° and sunny, and pretty St. Mary Lake is laying like glass. I thought since we had already made this drive, I wouldn't be taking many pictures. Wrong!
On our drive, we had a sheep jam instead of a buffalo jam for Big Horn Sheep. 4 rams were blocking the road, and then they walked right alongside the edge beside us.
Shortly after that, we came upon a pull-out with 3 mountain goats. We got to see them up close and personal
Shortly after that, a varmint ran across the road in front of us. We thought it might have been a marmot, but we’re not sure. I googled it later and sure enough, a marmot it was. I didn't get a picture but I found one on-line. We had seen marmots in Alaska but those were all brown.
All the waterfalls seem to have found a fresh supply of water, and are pouring off every crack in the mountains. Even the Weeping Wall was weeping a lot more today.
Joe decided he needed to find a restroom and then we would turn around, so we continued on to the bottom of the mountain. When we found the restroom, we were right alongside the river that I liked so well, and I said I thought my favorite spot was just a little ways ahead, so we drove on up to it. That turned out to be 3 miles (Joe pointed out, 6 miles round trip). And we took a few pictures. The people on the rock are not us. We did turn around there and head back. It’s now 8:35.
But the nicest thing happened here. While Joe was taking the picture of me with the river behind my back, this black SUV pulled in and stopped, and a lady got out of the passenger door and asked if we wanted her to take the picture of both of us. We said sure, and she did. She said she just thought we deserved to have a picture of the two of us together. And then she got back in the SUV and they left, so the only reason they stopped was because she saw Joe taking a picture and offered to take a picture of both of us. That was really nice.
When we decided to make this drive, we agreed that we wouldn’t drive the whole Sun Road. Maybe we would turn around at Logan‘s Pass, which is 17 miles in. Well, as it happened, we saw the big horn sheep about a mile from Logan‘s Pass, so Logan‘s Pass just came and went, and we just drove right on by. Which was a good thing, because within a mile or so we came upon the Mountain Goats. That was our first sighting of them.
So we just kept going and going and when we turned around, we were probably about 18 miles from the west entrance.
But it was a beautiful drive with the sun giving different light and shadow to the mountains, especially with the snow on them, and to the numerous waterfalls, which were absolutely gushing. And you can see how narrow and windy this road is. No room for error. The second photo is Bird Woman Falls. I don't think I got a picture of it on Monday.
And then, walking along the rock wall (you can see a similar wall in the picture above) was a Male Dusty Grouse!!! It was beautiful.
Then we had another piece of excitement. Coming back up the mountain from the west side, a motorcycle pulled out of a pull-out. His tires were wet and when he got to the corner, he lost control and got spun around and headed back toward us. Just a few feet later, he dumped the bike practically beside us, so Joe pulled up and blocked the road in case traffic came around the corner. Fortunately, none did, and the rider was able to get back up on his bike. Joe said he would rather a vehicle hit us than hit the motorcyclist. So we all got lucky. Joe had his phone on video and was videoing the road when this happened, so I snapshotted them the best I could.
.
Then we saw a deer sticking his head over the wooden guard rail right beside the road. I could’ve almost touched his nose.
One of the mountain goats was still in that pull-out when we came back through. He must have bullied the others away.
Logan‘s Pass was 14 1/2 miles back from where we turned around, elevation 6,636. It’s now 9:10 and we have 18 more miles to go. There was a surprising amount of traffic on this drive tonight. I guess a lot of other people had the same idea as we did.
We looked hard in the burned-out area because from past experience, we know the animals like that. We finally spotted a deer amongst the dead trees. This was our second deer sighting tonight.
.
We had to back up for Joe to see this one, but fortunately traffic has thinned out and we didn’t have anybody behind us.
The lake was beautiful and as we returned from our drive, the reflection of the snow and the clouds and the mountains made it a breathtaking site. It’s still laying as calm as glass, and after our last two days of strong winds, that’s pretty amazing. This would make a nice puzzle picture. If I held my camera just a smidgen to the left, Goose Island would be in the picture.
We exited the park at 9:50 from our 66-mile jaunt after supper, but it was a very successful trip. We saw four big horn rams, three mountain sheep, two deer, a marmot and a male grouse. In addition to the eagle. Five minutes later, we were back at the camper and it was just not quite dark.
And here's another waterfall picture, just because.
Tomorrow is our last day here, before we move to the West side of the Park. We will be staying the next week in White Fish and traveling roads over there. This is beautiful country, and this park is absolutely gorgeous. I think we came at a good time with the cool weather, snow, rain (could do without the wind). Earlier today I mentioned to Joe that I was disappointed in the amount of wildlife we had seen, but tonight made up for that.
No comments:
Post a Comment