Monday, June 2, 2014

There are a lot of hiking trails in Glacier, but with all of the focus on being "bear aware" we were a bit nervous about getting too far from civilization.  The hike to Avalanche Lake is one of the most popular trails in the park, so it seemed like a good choice.  It was a total of just over 5 miles.  We started early to catch some of the morning light, but in the forest I'm not sure that makes a lot of difference.  Avalanche Trail is off of the Trail of the Cedars loop.  The day was a little cool, but sunny.  I was constantly scanning the woods for any movement or sound - my understanding of being "bear aware" - luckily, we never had any trouble.

Near the start of Avalanche Trail we passed Avalanche Gorge.  It was a spectacular stretch of rapids and falls.  The snow melt created a huge flow of water.  There was a significant elevation change in the few hundred yards of the gorge which created a lot of noise.  After a while it was a bit overwhelming and I was happy for the silence of the forest again.  It was probably a half mile of hiking before we no longer heard the rushing water.

The trail was absolutely gorgeous and we had it to ourselves for the first hour or so before we finally had someone pass us on their way back.

Two miles in and we reached our destination.  The view was worth every bit of the effort to get there.  There was no wind so the surface of the lake was like glass reflecting the mountains in the background.

Just on the other side of these peaks was one of the many glaciers in the park, but it was not visible from this vantage point.  Hopefully, we will see glaciers when the "Going to the Sun Road" opens later in the month (of course, that also assumes we make it back to the park later in June or July).

There are at least three large cascading waterfalls on the other side of the lake.  It is difficult to see them well at such a distance, but below is a close-up of the center falls just above the level of the lake.

Imagine the tectonic forces responsible for twisting these sedimentary layers into the shapes below.

These four geese were the only wildlife we saw on our hike for the day. I'm not really unhappy about that since the alternative might have been a bit too exciting!  I still really want to see a moose - I just want it to be on the other side of some convenient natural barrier.  Note how the bottom of the lake is covered with waterlogged timber.

Yes, Joani had to stick her hand into the water to see if it was cold. As you can imagine it was icy!  It was frozen only a few hours before it became running water in the creek, after all.