Uncategorized – Page 14 – Living Wonderously

It wasn’t until our third day in Glacier National Park that we finally got to see what charms this awesome park contains. We did hikes on our first two days here and saw some of the areas, but weather and wildfire season were not cooperating to allow us to view what we knew was here.

The first day we were on the west side of the park and the smoke-filled air that had been obscuring our views for days in Idaho and Montana refused to move out of our way. We hiked to a lookout tower and half of that hike was disappointing because it was through a forested area that had been burned over. In the afternoon we did a nice hike to Avalanche Lake.

That evening a storm system moved through, bringing rain and cooler air. The second day we left our motel early in the morning to drive through the park on the famous Going-to-the-Sun road. We could see some of the stunning scenery but the tops of the mountains were obscured in mist and fog. Traffic was so heavy that we didn’t dare stop to take pictures. When we got to the Visitor Center at the top it was an hour before it opened and the parking lot was full of cars already. Everything was lost in a sea of fog. We didn’t stick around but changed our hiking plans to do a couple of hikes lower down the mountain.

But today dawned bright and clear, just perfect for an 11-mile hike to view Grinnell Glacier. I couldn’t stop taking photos. It was so awesome compared to what we saw the first two days. So I’m not bothering to post any of the other pictures here so I can leave more room for the Grinnell Glacier hike–one to remember.

Morning fog lifting on drive to trailhead.

Looking back down the valley that we hiked up on the approach to the glacier.

Pool of melted snow that forms as the glacier melts.

There’s no morning newspaper waiting for us on our doorstep when we are traveling. This morning we started the day with a different kind of newspaper. The photo above is Newspaper Rock in Canyonlands National Park. I thought I’d seen lots of petroglyphs in various places in New Mexico but I’ve certainly never seen that many on one rock. Even if we could have translated the language it would have been ancient news (Ha Ha).

Really, though, who cares about news when there are hiking trails waiting to be explored. This trip included just a one-day stop at Canyonlands so we couldn’t do a long hike. The ranger at the Needles Visitor Center suggested the Elephant Hill Trailhead where we could hike 3 miles to get good views of the Needles and then 3 miles back out.

We thought we had gotten an early start but when we arrived at the trailhead at 10:00am and the temperature was already 85 degrees I knew it was going to be a sweaty endeavor. I was wishing I had brought 3 water bottles, instead of 2. Fortunately, Lee was carrying an extra one. Before we got back to the car I had used all my water and was sharing some of his.

I had expected that since this is one of the popular National Parks there would be a lot of people, but it was relatively deserted. Maybe most people are smarter than we are and don’t hike in Canyonlands in August. It was 100 degrees when we got back to the car. I didn’t know my body could produce so much sweat. But we survived and it was worth it to enjoy the awesome red rock formations.