A Day at Glacier Nat'l Park 06-12-12

Yesterday Joan Hodgeboom treated Ruth McDowell, Ruth Powers and myself to a wonderful driving tour of Glacier Nat'l Park, but the "Going-to-the-Sun" road is still not open due to snow, so we stopped at West Glacier and then drove around the park just outside the boundary - across the south end and up the east side to visit Many Glaciers, St. Mary's, Isak Walton, and other points of interest. 

 
Our first stop was for breakfast Glacier Highland restaurant at West Glacier where they served the best pancakes I have eaten in a very long time.   This guy is their greeter at the door.

 
Unfortunately someone removed his left eye, so he must wear a patch.

 
We stopped at Goat Lick overlook, a place where mountain goats go to lick the cliff face for the minerals that are found there.  No goats in this image, but on the way back Joan and Ruth P. went down the path and could see goats on the very sheer rock.  By this time my ankle was bothering me too much to do any hiking.

 
This is one of the red buses - see the canvas top that can be rolled back to provide sweeping views.

 
This is the lobby of Glacier Park Lodge built in 1913 by the Great Northern Railroad hotel at East Glacier.  The columns are Douglas Fir trees shipped from Oregon (I think), on railroad cars with specially built cradles to prevent damage to the bark.  They are massive and amazing.  Ruth McDowell stand on the left.

 
What an awesome table, you can see it in the previous picture also.

So many astounding views and we enjoyed gorgeous weather all day.

 
It was sad to see the results of a number of forest fires in past years.  In the Nat'l Park the practice is to leave the trees just as they are, unfortunately the standing and fallen timber dries and creates a huge fire hazard.  In the Blackfeet Nation adjacent to the Park, the Native American's removed much of the usable timber soon after the fires.  

 
More awesome views.

 
And rocks that seem to be cut by man, but are not.

 
This is one of the most photographed spots in the Park.  The little island is Two Geese Island.

 
We stopped at a viewpoint to admire this roaring waterfall.  There is a ramp down under the road and up the other side, but my ankle wasn't up to it, so I stayed up by the road.

 
And was thrilled to see this Dipper, a bird that bobs up and down on the rocks and then throws himself into the rushing water to walk on the streambed searching for tidbits to eat.  I know it is a terrible image, but I was so thrilled to see this little bird that I had to post it.

 
Here Ruth Powers, Joan Hodgeboom and Ruth McDowell walk down the ramp to get a better view of the waterfall and the stream.

 
This is Jackson Glacier - slowly melting away like all glaciers today.

 
Another tourist offered to take a picture of all of us together. 
Del Thomas, Ruth Powers, Ruth McDowell, Joan Hodgeboom.

We saw all sorts of wildlife, but mostly out of range of my camera.  This black bear was quite close to the road, but was too busy eating to pay any attention to us.   

 

Here he is with his head turned so at least his ear shows.
We also saw a grizzly bear in a meadow down along the river - quite a distance from the road and the gawking tourists.   There were dozens of mountain sheep and mountain goats above us on the high slopes, but again too far away for my point and shoot camera.

From the road we spotted this mother loon in a beaver pond with two chicks on her back.  The chicks swim around for a short time and then climb on Mom for a ride.

 
This is a sure indicator that beavers are working nearby.  The trees they cut have the tell-tale point.

 
Here is the beaver dam right on the edge of the road where the stream goes under.

These beavers have created a very large pond.

Another Loon, perhaps the Papa, swam quite close to the shore and gave his wonderful call a number of times, including the eerie yodel.