The sunrise that morning was beautiful, and the hike to Grinnel Glacier the day before gave us a taste of the teal glacial lakes and massive expanse of granite mountains. Since it’s been a while since I’ve posted, I recommend checking out the previous posts to get caught up, but with the family up and moving and breakfast in our stomachs, it was time to explore more of the park.
The iconic wildlife of Glacier National Park had eluded us the day prior, and a tip from another photographer that morning led us to explore Logan Pass, and specifically the Hidden Lake Overlook.
The drive up the Eastern side of Going to the Sun Road was beautiful as always, and we couldn't resist stopping at some overlooks along the way.
Once at the top, we quickly realized that this hike would not be a remote wilderness hike. The top of Logan's Pass greets you with a large parking lot full of tourists and cars with a ranger waving traffic to continue down the road. Thankfully the park system offers a free shuttle that drives the entirety of Going to the Sun Road, so we backtracked down to park at Siyeh Bend (a beautiful location itself). As we waited for the next shuttle we got our day packs together, put on sunscreen and took in the views.
After arriving via the shuttle to the trail head for Hidden Lake we were finally starting our hike.
The crowds of people were not ideal, but we'd heard many people walking past discussing how beautiful the lake was, and even sightings of baby mountain goats! However, about 15 minutes into the hike my wife Dee stopped us with terror on her face, tears in her eyes, and some grim news. Her wedding ring was not on her finger.
We dug through our packs, pockets, and even emptied everything out onto the boardwalk, but could not find the ring. From memory, we weren't sure if it had been left back at our campsite, or at the shuttle stop while putting on sun screen, and with the massive amount of people traveling through the park our hopes of ever seeing the ring again were pretty slim. While frustration and fear levels were high, we were ultimately faced with the decision to continue on with the hike, or start back-tracking all the way to our tent. With a limited amount of time to spend in the park, the hopes of seeing Hidden Lake, or the goats, were drastically reduced.
It was a long wait for the shuttle, and the drive back to Siyeh Bend seemed to take forever, but as soon as the shuttle rounded the bend and the glimmer of the diamond caught my eye from the gravel alongside the road. I knew we'd made the right choice. Hundreds of cars, and thousands of people must have passed by that exact spot since we'd left but there it was! It was a challenging situation to face but was a great learning experience for the family, and we were all there to support each other.
With the wedding ring safely back on Dee's finger we traveled back up to Logan Pass and began the hike again to Hidden Lake. While fairly crowded the hike was an easy and stellar example of the tundra you find in the Rocky Mountains. The crowds also began to thin out as usual as you progress towards the Lake, but there was never a time when you felt alone until the trail beyond the Hidden Lake Overlook. There is a fine line between our park systems protecting these beautiful locations, and making them available for all to enjoy. While this particular area had heavy traffic, when you consider how many mountain passes do not have roads and parking lots, it is a good thing that the average tourist can see this beauty.
Throughout the hike we were amazed at the massive scale of the surrounding views.
Nearly to our destination we finally came across the goats! I'd had my Canon 100-400mm f5.6 on my camera for almost the entire hike up, and when you carry that much weight in gear it is always awesome for it to pay off ;-)
While the older goats are very used to seeing people each summer, the younger goat was as curious as any toddler. It roamed and played in and out of the crowds, and at one point even walked right through a family's picnic among the trees. It was all the older goat could do to keep up and keep the younger out of trouble.
After spending some time with the goats we eventually made our way to the overlook for Hidden Lake. The clouds played out dramatic light on the grand scene before us, and ice sheets traveled on the wind over the surface of the lake below. It was absolutely stunning and the scale of the scene before us simply unbelievable. Bearhat Mountain rises half a mile above the surface of the lake and in this image, about 1.5 miles across.
Bearhat Mountain towering over Hidden Lake as the clouds and sheets of ice move across them. This image was taken as a portrait oriented panorama with 3 distinct rows. 26 images in total from a Canon 80D with an EF-S18-125 each at ISO 100 50mm f9.0 1/200s and handheld. The resulting image is 19,000 x 8,400 pixels.
Days like this are few and far between, but are exactly why each of us should strive to explore more. Remove some comfort, and fill it with adventure.
