The Daily Post – Photo Challenge – Week of April 24, 2015 – “Motion.”
~Weekly Photo Challenge: Motion
Tag Archives: Montana
~A hike to Avalanche Lake~
We spent our last day visiting Glacier National Park hiking along Avalanche Creek to Avalanche Lake. It is a gorgeous, gorgeous area filled with Red Cedar, Black Cottonwood, Hemlock trees and much more. Some of these trees can live to be a 1000 years old. One can not walk among them without being in awe of their beauty and feeling their strength.
Sights from our hike…
Avalanche lake sits at the base of 8694-foot Bearhat Mountain, which rises almost 4800 feet above the lake towards the northeast. The mountain dominating the view towards the south is 7886-foot Little Matterhorn. If you look closely at the cliffs and mountains that surround the lake you’ll notice several long waterfalls cascading hundreds of feet as they make their way towards the lake. (info taken from the web)
In the morning we head home. We leave Glacier with sadness, happy hearts and fond memories. Will we return? You bet!
~A Mossy kind of Day~
Two hikes today, John’s Lake and Trail of the Cedar’s. These two areas are spectacular!! If you ever visit Glacier, these two hikes are a must!
Tomorrow is our last day in Glacier National Park. We plan to go on a hike to Glacier Lake. It has been a wonderful week; experiences we will treasure the rest of our lives.
~A bride in a creek, a couple resting and a creek flowing into a lake~
~
You never know what you will see when you happen to look down!
As we were walking across a bridge over McDonald Creek today in Glacier National Park, we saw a most usual sight. A bride laying in the water! I only took this one photo of her and I hope she didn’t care.
~
`A new stage in life begins…
`A pair for life…
`The flow of life…
McDonald Creek with the bridge in the distance
McDonald Lake on a cloudy day
A day, in our life, spent in Glacier!
~A funky town, a Blackfoot Warrior, Running Eagle Falls and a place called Two Medicine ~
Today we drove from West Glacier to the East entrance of Glacier National Park. Our destination, the Two Medicine area.
Along with today’s photos are a few taken yesterday as we drove Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Glacier National Park (West Entrance)
Glacier National Park (West Entrance)
Two Medicine, Glacier National Park
The landscape in East Glacier is different from West Glacier. The mountains are mostly bare rock as opposed to being tree covered on the West side. There are lots of Aspen and Cottonwood trees, which must be spectacular in the fall!
This area of Glacier has fewer visitors (which we like), a kind of funky vibe to the town of East Glacier (also which we like), lots of hiking trails, dramatic-shaped mountains, reminding us of Colorado, and numerous glacier fed lakes. A gorgeous, gorgeous area!
Info taken from the Wed:
“Two Medicine has become a somewhat off-the-beaten-path discovery for most park visitors. Once discovered however it’s easy to see why many people consider this their favorite part of Glacier National Park.”
The legion of the falls… Info taken from the web:
“This falls is named after Running Eagle (Pitamakan), a Blackfoot tribeswoman who lived around 1825. As the story goes, she gravitated to the skills of a Blackfoot warrior. She became a great hunter and was incredibly brave in the face of her tribes’ enemies. At one point, Running Eagle was instructed by the village elders to go on a vision quest in order to find her true calling. It is said that she went on this quest near the falls. Running eagle was able to tell of her adventures in the Medicine Lodge ceremonies while also becoming a member of the Braves Society of young warriors. She continued to lead successfully war and hunting parties until she died in a battle against a party of Flatheads near the Sun River.”
“Running Eagle, aka Brown Weasel Woman, was a Blackfoot woman who rescued her father after his horse was shot by an enemy tribe. The name Running Eagle was bestowed upon her for her bravery, and she was invited to join a warrior society, and acted as a female war chief. She was eventually clubbed to death by members of the Flathead Tribe in 1850 when she was caught trying to steal their horses during a battle.”
I wish I had more photos, but it began to rain!
I guess you could say we went on our own type of Vision Quest today.
~Glacier National Park and the Hungry Horse Area~
“I have no words to adequately describe the raw beauty of Glacier National Park.
Nor, do I have the words to express, the feeling of pure joy, while I stand in this beauty.”
These photos were taken this afternoon, in Glacier National Park, driving to the Fish Creek area.
These photos were taken yesterday on our way to Logan Pass, in Glacier National Park. The day was cloudy and last night we had a thunderstorm pass over.
These photos were taken this morning on our way to Hungry Horse Reservoir.
~Oh no, over the falls!~
We are riding along on Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park and pull into a turnout. We get out of the car and walk down an embankment to view McDonald Falls. Howard and I are enjoying the magnificent scenery and I am taking a few photos.
I see movement out of the corner of my eye and glance in that direction. On the other side of McDonald Creek is a family of Canada Geese coming out of the forest They seem in a big hurry and within seconds I realize why. Behind them, emerging from the forest, are two hikers.
The Canada Goose Family, two parents and three juveniles, are heading for the creek traversing over rocks toward their destination. I don’t believe they realize just how close they are to McDonald falls. They should have been more afraid of the falls than the hikers.
In the creek the father goes, followed by the rest of his family.
I think at this point they realize their mistake! They are trying to swim upstream, the current is swift, they are not doing well. They try to climb up on some boulders to get out of the creek, the boulders are slick and they keep sliding backward. They flap their wings trying to lift out of the fast flowing water, it doesn’t help. They are getting soaked.
Finally, they get a foot hold and four of the five make it up out of the water.
One of the young is having trouble, the current is too swift and over the falls it goes. It tries to climb up on a boulder in the pool in which it landed. The boulder is too wet and too high.
I was watching its face, it was like it just decided this wasn’t working and resolved to float out of the pool and further down stream. It turned and went over another small fall.
It floated several feet before it got a foot hold and was able to climb up and out. I was not able to see where it climbed out.
At this point it was on a slope of solid rock and was able to make its way toward its family. As it waddled toward them it was fussing the entire time.
Once the family was united they hurried back toward the woods.
So glad this episode ended well.
Howard and I were not the only ones watching this drama play out. About 15 other tourists were there to view the falls. Everyone was yelling, including me: “swim, fly, you can make it, get out, oh no, its going over, yeah it made it”
And, everyone was clapping when it got out of the creek and waddled its way up the slope of rocks to its family! The hikers, dang them, were sitting on a boulder watching along with everyone else.
