September 22, 2009 Glacier NP St. Mary and Many Glacier

We had just a great day! Woke to "severe clear" skies and 40 degree temps. The severe clear lasted all day and the temperature got all the way up to 80, so, with the dry air, it was nearly perfect for hiking and wildlife hunting.

To catch up, here's yesterday's sunset:


And the same view for sunrise:



Part of the reason we moved to this side of the Park was to be able to get pictures of the scenery on this side with the sun behind us. Here are a few of the results:

Wild Goose Island in the middle of St Mary Lake.

There's a panoramic video of this view here.

Guess what the sun brought to light (is that a pun?) on this mountain.

Painted Mountain.

Here's a little unusual factoid for you:

One of a kind, they say.

Onward! As we worked our way to the top of the Park, we got distracted by trails to waterfalls. With the recent snowfall followed by warm days, the drips, rills, runs, creeks, streams, and rivers are showing their best on the way down the mountain.

Unnamed falls near St Mary Falls

Quiet, beautiful setting within feet of the Road

A small part of St. Mary Falls that I thought was beautiful.

There are waterfall videos for you here, and here.

And here is the video of the locally famous St. Mary Falls.

Then it was on to lunch, which we had a little ways down the road from the place we've shown you twice this week. Here's why we changed:

Lunch view to the right.

Lunch view to the left.

More of the view to the right. Remember the little stream that ran by our feet at our former favorite ever lunch spot? This is where it falls into the valley after traveling about 1/4 mile further.

And here is the video.

And here is the video of the overall view.

We promised to try to find wildlife today and it took a long while, but finally......

MMG captures a Black (ok, brown, but he is a Black) Bear.

"I See You!

And a Red Hawk

Same Hawk, different view.

There's a Grizzlie Bear in this picture, but he was about three miles away and this is the best we could do.

A herd of Big Horn Sheep. These were only about 1 1/2 miles away. See how much better it is?

And here's my contribution:

Butterfly?

More tomorrow!

Our love to you all!

MMG and DDG