Day 9: Finally–Logan Pass

Got up at the planned time and made good time, as you can imagine. Only one other person was up there with me and it was still dark. Looking around the area and never having been there before, there were 3 major mountains and flowers all around. I needed to decide which one I should set up to shoot because once the sun starts rising, it moves pretty fast. I checked my trusty phone for the East direction and set up for the mountains facing east, since that’s where the sun would cast its light. But I would miss the sun coming up over the mountain. I thought I could probably come back that afternoon, if necessary. The light would be just right for the other side. I did get nice shots and with the flowers,  I hope it made good compositions. The problem is that until I get home and see my pix up close, I can’t tell how sharp or noisy anything is, so I hope the photos I show here will do it justice. I just missed the bighorn ram in the parking lot–I’m glad I got to see him but would have liked to take a photo even though the parking lot is not a very pretty background. Also saw a marmot–the ones I have seen before have been brown, but this is an alpine marmot so a different colored coat.

Sunrise

Don’t know the names of the peaks yet

By the time I left Logan Pass, it was about 8:30 a.m. Cars were filling up the parking lot and as I went downhill, lines of car were coming from the other direction. Rangers had installed a traffic stop at Weeping Wall where people had to wait for cars to come down from the parking lot in order for them to go up. There is a definite reason for my madness of getting up at 3:00 a.m. I made a couple of extra stops and discovered my tired, old body was beginning to protest. I was stiff and aching in more places than I could count, so after a nap, I made the decision not to go back this afternoon. I’m sure I will be sorry tomorrow, but I think it might be the wise thing to do. I still need to pack and load my duffle bag and camera bag, and that will probably do it for me.

The trip wasn’t as productive as I had hoped since we weren’t able to visit some of the places in the St. Mary’s area. I can see that I needed to spend at least one more day at Logan Pass if it had come at an earlier time in the trip. But as John Muir said:“God never made an ugly landscape. All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild.”

 

 

Day 8: Many Glaciers

Whoa-a-a! At 3:00 a.m. the fire alarm goes off! Considering there has been a fire some miles down the road and it has been really windy all day, the first thing that comes to mind is that the fire has shifted and is heading our way. The recorded message goes–”A fire has been reported. Please leave the hotel immediately by the nearest exit” and is then repeated over and over. Well, first I have to get dressed and its cold outside. Luckily, I had laid out my clothes for the sunrise so I could get dressed fast. Then I thought I should take my car keys. After all, if we’re going to have to leave, I will need my car so I stopped to look for those. Then just as I was ready to walk out the door, I thought that I probably should take my camera bag and computer. The rest could stay, but I would need those! After all, I do have my priorities! By the time, I got outside, another announcement came on saying it was safe to go back in. So went back in, read for an hour (because I can’t sleep after all that), finally went to sleep and back up by 5:30 a.m.

Fire is Spreading

This morning, though, was a different story. It was clear and sunny and the alpenglow on the mountains was a beautiful, almost red, color. These peaks remind me of those at Yosemite–created by glaciers. The biggest difference is that the lakes at Yosemite are now gone and are mostly meadows whereas at Glacier most of the glaciers are gone but the lakes still remain.

Alpenglow–when the sun hits the mountain.

Right before the sun starts shining on the peaks

I took time to take a boat trip across Swiftcurrent Lake and then across Josephine Lake. I had planned to hike to Grinnell Lake but I was warned not to hike alone because there are a lot of bears in the park. I thought I might be able to keep up with the crowds that were walking it, but with my camera bag and tripod, the uphills caused me to lag behind, so decided to go back to the dock.

I headed back to West Glacier stopping along the way to take photos, and got there about 4:00 p.m. I checked in with the Ranger and found that Going-to-the-Sun Road was open to Logan Pass but it was really crowded. I thought that by the time I got up there (a drive of approx. 1-1/2 hrs that it would have thinned out considerably. But about 3/4 of the way up, my gas warning light came on so I headed back, hoping I would be able to find a gas station before I ran out of gas. Luckily I did, and decided not to try again. Sorry I couldn’t get there, because I could have gotten the sunset shots from there–I think. I headed back to Kalispell to go to bed very early in order to get up at 3:00 a.m. for the 2-1/2 hr. drive.

Day 7–West Glacier and Many Glaciers

On the Road to Many Glaciers

Up at 5:00 a.m. to revisit Going-To-The-Sun Road. It rained last night and it’s very foggy, so wanted to see what difference that makes. Stopped at a couple of overlooks that I hadn’t noticed before. And on Heaven’s Peak, there was a bit of sun peeking though. Had to take a picture of that since we haven’t seen much sun this week. Wandered back down the road and left West Glacier at about 10:00 a..m. If you notice in the photo above, there’s a turquoise lake and then some white smoke behind the the part of the mountain in front of it.  Today that’s all I could see of the fire although the clouds are retaining some of the smoke.

I made a reservation at the Many Glacier Hotel (built in 1915) on the east side of the park for tonight and will go back to the west side tomorrow. I’ve heard good things about the area, so I wanted to see it for myself. This is the 100^th anniversary for the hotel. It has been well maintained and of course modernized with electricity and plumbing and I’m sure the kitchen area is kept up with the latest equipment. It as built to look like a Swiss chalet sitting on a turquoise lake. I think this mountain (Grinnell Point) actually sits facing east so I might get some photos of a sunset and sunrise after all. My room with a balcony with parkside view is on the first floor and the balcony overlooks a road and a toolshed. (What more should I expect when I book one day in advance!) It has a double and a twin bed and the tub is one of the old style clubfoot ones that are plenty deep for soaking after a long day. Most guests spend their after dinner hours sitting at the large picture windows or out on the deck watching the sunset and some even get up in time for the sunrise. It was cool outside so most people were sitting in by the fire, but I managed to stick it out and talked with a few of the braver souls.

Another McDonald Lake photo at West Glacier

Haystack Falls at West Glacier

The sunset was somewhat of a bust since it was dark, cloudy and windy. Sunset is around 9:30 p.m. so there’s a lot of sitting around waiting for it. But time enough to meet some nice people. For most of them, it finally got too cold, but some nice old man (probably just my age!) sat with me for the last hour until his granddaughter came out and told him he had to come in.

Many Glacier Hotel across the Lake

As good as I could get–sunset at Grinnell Point

After the sunset I plan to get up early to see that sunrise myself.

Many Glacier Panorama

 

Day 6: Some are going home but I’m staying longer

McDonald Falls

After a good night’s sleep, I revisited Avalanche Gorge and spent some time at the creek. I was there by 8:00 a.m. but the parking lot was already full when I got there! Surprising! I thought I would take some time at a couple of the overlooks and see if I could improve on what I got the first day. Also went back to McDonald Creek–I’m  a little  happier with them than the first time. Went back to my room after lunch and played with Lightroom (a photo editing program). My laptop isn’t calibrated so I’m not sure when I process a photo, if the colors that others see on their screens are the same as what I see. I’ll just have to wait until I get home to find out if I need to redo them.

McDonald Lake

McDonald Creek

I’m trying to see if I can get a room at the Many Glaciers area for tomorrow night.  It’s about a 3 hour drive but I have the time and hope to see some of the areas that people are always talking about.

As you can see, I found a new button for my photos, so it looks better now. You can click a photo and then click on the arrow on the side to see a slideshow of each photo.

 

Day 5: Trail of the Cedars

Trail of the Cedars

We agreed to get a later start today so left the motel at 7:00 a.m. where we went back to the Avalanche section of West Glacier. We walked the Trail of Cedars where we worked at being creative enough to find the “little” photo ops. That’s often hard for me so it was a stretch. We dropped by McDonald Lodge to take a look and the guys had fun taking pix of the red Ford motor cars that are used for tour groups. We didn’t get much done today because 3 of the participants needed to leave early in order to check out of the motel. We had been carpooling from the motel to the park and didn’t let me know that they were leaving early; otherwise, I could have brought my own car–disappointing!

Part of Avalanche Creek

Leaves

We had hoped Logan Pass was going to open up, but the last word was that they might do it by Wednesday. As it turns out, I had planned to stay a couple of extra days so I might still be here when it opens. Hope so!

Red Cedar Bark

Western Hemlock Bark

Day 4: Two Medicine Lodge Area of Glacier

Two Medicine Lodge

Since We had agreed we needed to sleep in today and since the weather hasn’t been cooperating a lot, we skipped the morning shoot. We met up again at 2:00 for Lightroom lessons. Jason’s very good at teaching. He’s really helped me with compositions and I noticed he uses his 100-400mm lens for macro shooting. I’ve used my 70-200 but have basically saved this bigger lens for wildlife. It seems I do have other uses for it. He’s also been very considerate about giving me a hand when I need it. My footing isn’t great any more on lots of gravel and or slick slate, so I appreciated it. The lodges all have these long, red touring cars in order to take guests around to areas of the part they would like to see. Notice the “starburst” on mine. (That’s kind of a joke with our group in that everyone wanted to get a starburst/sunburst in a photo of the sunrise. It has to be done when the sun is rising behind an object.) Since we didn’t get any of those sunrises, I did the next best thing!

The Touring Car with Starburst

We drove a little further today to try to get to a different part of the park. However, I got very little that I will keep from the Two Medicine area. We went to visit one of the original lodges–most were built in the 1930s. I’m not very good at shooting architecture, but I have posted a photo of the lodge here. We visited a small waterfall (which was supposed to be a double waterfall, but the 2nd one was dry) and then went on to Two Medicine Lake for sunset. Lots of clouds rolled in but they were too dense for much color to get through. It was very, very windy. Again, not much to brag about today.

Running Eagle Falls

Two Medicine Lake at Sundown

3rd Day: Going-to-the-Sun Road

Sunrise at Mt. Oberlin

This morning was not as early as yesterday–we left for the park at 4:00 a.m. A nice morning to shoot except for the wind. We got a little color on the mountain but not much. Our problem is the peaks at West Glacier don’t face east or west, but mostly north and south, so we’ll not get those great sunsets. But the flowers were pretty against the mountain although not quite sharp due to the wind. This site was on Going-to-the-Sun Road which we can get on from West Glacier but can’t go any further than Mt. Oberlin. Just 3 miles up the road is Logan Pass which is the highest point and supposedly a great location but it’s closed due to the fire. After shooting at Mt. Oberlin, because the skies were overcast, we finished up the morning at McDonald Creek and its myriad of small waterfalls. The problem is that part of them were in shadow and part of them in sun. Several of the pix are quite blue. I will have to talk to Jason about that. Didn’t have much luck with the editing.  Will try to do more when I get home.

Back to our rooms by 11:00, take a nap, and then meet for a Lightroom lesson at 2:00. It was a good lesson where I learned a couple of new techniques. Then off to Kintla Lake for sunset. By now, we were all feeling our lack of sleep plus not getting a chance to look at our photos, so I, for one, wasn’t very enthusiastic about this photo op. Nothing being very inspiring  was probably as much about being tired than anything.  We all agreed maybe we could use a little catch-up on the zzz’s, so we’re going to skip the morning shoot and drive a little further to try to get some different scenery.

McDonald Falls

Kintla Lake

2nd Day: A Landscape Photographer’s Day

Sundown at Hungry Horse Reservoir

Since we’re not going to be able to go to the east part of the park, Jason had to rethink his whole itinerary. That includes not being able to visit several of the peaks on the east side of Going-to-the-Sun Road. It sounds like we may have to go back to some of the same locations a second time, which makes two of our participants unhappy. They weren’t very cooperative and its always a “downer” to have someone like that on a trip.

Today we left our motel at 3:30 a.m. in order to get to the park by 4:30 a.m. After all, we have to be there when the light dawns (and if it dawns!)  From the Park entrance  we drove another hour to Bowman Lake for sunrise. Unfortunately, we were about 30 minutes too late for the first color and we had few clouds, but we made the best of it. Afterwards,  we made a stop at a tiny town called Polebridge to get coffee and some of their famous huckleberry bear claws. Then back to our rooms for a quick nap. Back at the park by 4:30 for our evening shoot.  We had better luck at Hungry Horse Reservoir as the clouds started rolling in around 9:00 p.m.

Bowman Lake at Sunrise

Cabin at Polebridge

A landscape photographer in the summer doesn’t get much sleep since it dawns around 6:00 a.m. and sunset is around 9:30 p.m.  Add to that long drives–and most of us like to take time to glance at our photos to see what we’re getting!  Oh well, I can sleep when I get home. (Remember–you can click on the small photos to see them in a larger mode.)

A PHOTO TRIP TO GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

Day 1: I’m beginning to think I’m unlucky. It seems every photo trip I’ve been on recently has had a glitch! This time as I went to the Rental Car place, the driver asked if I had heard about the fire at Glacier. It seems that there was a fire in the part of the park where we were supposed to stay. Luckily he said something about it or I would have driven 2 hours to my hotel, all to find we were no longer meeting there. Since I had been on a plane since 6:20 a.m., I hadn’t gotten the messages yet. Jason didn’t have my cell number and so had left emails, which I hadn’t looked at yet. (No, I’m not one of those people who turn on my phone as soon as I land.)

The team leader (and his wife) found us another place to stay in the west side of the park but it meant having to drive an hour to get to the park and then more to each shooting location. Well, nature sometimes doesn’t cooperate and we just made the best of it. First afternoon we went to Avalanche Creek and then sundown at Lake McDonald. Finished shooting at 9:30, back in my room by 10:45.

Avalanche Gorge

They have seemed to change the way to do the photos on the blog, so I will have to look into this. I think you can still click on the small pix to see it in a larger size.  Will look up how to do this before I post the next day.