Alaska 2019-04

After leaving the Little Bighorn, we continued on towards Butte, Montana.  We stopped along the road to take this shot of the Beartooth Mountains.

After arriving in Butte, we did some antique shopping, took a ride around town, and stopped at a couple of historic mines.  This is the memorial to those lost in the 1917 Granite Mountain Mine Fire where 168 miners lost their lives, most due to suffocation.

The actual memorial was placed on the site of the original mine, and offered interactive exhibits into the lives of the miners, including their last letters to their loved ones.  It was quite sobering.

The mine is below the memorial.

Jason posed for a picture after reading all of the flags representing countries of the fallen miners.

Cathy stood at the Yugoslavia flag.  Her father was born in Butte and is of Yugoslavian descent.

This was taken along the interpretive hiking and bicycling trail surrounding the mines.

Jason was looking for the entrance to the “mile deep” shaft.

And, of course, for Michelle, I took a shot of the standard Irish Pub…in Butte!

After spending the day downtown (and a visit to the towns of Opportunity and Anaconda) we drove the next morning out to the Continental Divide and took Moose Creek Road (a dirt road) for several miles into the Humbug Spires Wilderness Study Area. It started to snow so Jason got out to play.  We got a pretty good dusting and the snow was still there the next morning. The snow was starting to stick and we were a good ways off the beaten path so we decided to head back to civilization just to be on the safe side.

Continuing towards St. Mary (at the eastern entrance to Glacier Nation Park) we stopped to let Jason watch a five engine train climbing the hill.  There were three engines pulling and two at the end, pushing.

Jason earned his Junior Ranger award after completing a mandatory three-mile hike.  We hiked the Beaver Pond Trail and saw two black bear in the bushes eating berries.  This is the start of the Beaver Pond Trail, at the site of the 1913 era complex used by the first Glacier Park rangers.

We hiked through several pristine meadows but failed to see any wildlife.

This is part of last year’s devastating fires that engulfed the St. Mary Lake area of Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Reservation.

We reached Beaver Pond about halfway through the hike.

This is the smaller pond just downstream from the main pond.  The beavers had built an additional,  smaller dam on the outlet creek creating this pond..

There was a beaver lodge built at the southernmost end of the pond.  There were beaver active here when we arrived but I was at the other end of the pond and did not get a shot.

A portion of the trail contained improvements to help keep erosion down.

Wildflowers were in full bloom, with acres of yellows, then blues, then purples, whites, etc.  I did not attempt to identify these varieties.

We made it back to the shores of St. Mary Lake about midday, enjoying this view of the park leading to Going-to-the-Sun Road. The road was closed due to heavy snowfall and repairs to the guard rails from avalanches.

Jason made friends with the ranger.  She is checking his paperwork for his Junior Ranger badge and making sure he is knowledgable of the subject matter.

Once convinced that he did the work and verifying the hike, he got sworn in.

It was nice to see that the National Park Service has installed a third flagpole in honor of the Blackfeet Tribe, whom the park was “acquired” from.

We drove the Going-to-the-Sun road as far as we could (the Jackson Glacier overlook, about 14 miles up the road) and spotted this grizzly bear, way in the distance.  This shot was taken with my 24mm lens and I tried to center him in the frame.  He is the dark spot! More to come…

On the way back to camp, we spotted this moose on the St. Mary River, less than a mile from our campsite.

Since Going-to-the-Sun was closed, we decided to drive to the Many Glacier area of the park, about 25 miles north of camp.  This is Swiftcurrent Lake as viewed from the deck of the historic Many Glacier Hotel.  We stayed at this hotel 19 years ago.  It hasn’t changed.

We decided to take the three mile hike around the lake, hoping to spot some moose or bear.  The trail was in pretty good shape considering the recent weather and showed ample evidence of Elk and Moose, but alas, we did not spot a single one, although other hikers claimed sightings.  Cathy and Jason are on the trail, doing their best to avoid the mud puddles (Cathy, that is).

A view of the Many Glacier Hotel in the distance, taken from across the lake.

We had several river crossings on the trail, this is looking upriver towards the “Garden Wall”.  It was still about an hour walk back to the hotel.  You can hike from this particular trailhead over the pass in the background and on to the Going-to-the-Sun Road if you have several extra days (and bear spray)!

This is the same river entering Swiftcurrent Lake.  I kind of wish I had obtained my Montana fishing license, as there were multiple areas that looked very promising, especially this early in the season.

The scenery on this lake hike was outstanding.

Since this is the southern part of the trail and hidden from direct sunlight most of the time, there was still some snowpack left.

I convinced Jason to get out on a rock in the lake for this shot.

Nearing the end of the trek, Jason had to release some energy by throwing rocks and sticks in the lake.

The outlet of the lake led to a series of cascades then down to the valley.  We took a trail leading down into the valley and took this shot looking back at some of the cascades.

Walking back to our car, we spotted a mountain goat, and when we followed him down a path, we came across five of his friends.

We got back in camp in time to capture this scene, looking across St. Mary Lake.

We took Jason to the nearby river (where we spotted the moose the previous day).  He caught his first lake trout (about 14″) on his second cast!

I spotted this guy watching us from across the water but we got concerned when he decided to cross the bridge towards our side. We left our tackle and retreated to the truck.

We did not notice his claws until we saw the photo!

We assumed he gave us the “all clear” when he continued into the bush, about 25 feet away.  I grabbed a canister of bear spray and we went back to pick up our equipment without incident. We decided not to continue fishing here.