Vacation 2009 - Glacier NP Day Two

This is page six of our vacation 2009 blog. The first page is here.

Short Day Today

We had a really long day yesterday, and tomorrow we are heading for Waterton Lakes, which will be a long day as well. So today, we will just take in a few things on the Going to the Sun Road that we missed the first time across. We got up too late to think about getting to Logan Pass, so we will stop short of the construction area, and try to get back by suppertime.

Trail of the Cedars

Our first stop was Trail of the Cedars Nature Trail, near the Avalanche Creek campground & picnic area. This was a walk through a dense old-growth cedar and hemlock forest, with a bit of a stream running through it. It was actually dark enough in areas that some of the pictures were taken with flash. 

This pic shows how big some of the cedar trees are. You can also see how dark it was back in the woods. The look on Dale's face is interesting... Is he saying "I don't really want to take this hike" or "Do you really have to take my picture?" Or did I just catch him in the middle of a blink?

Although the trees are large, their roots are fairly shallow. Here is a root ball from one that fell over.

This was a really pretty cascade hiding behind the rocks. It was hard to get a picture that would do it justice, especially looking into the sun. These pictures were taken with two different cameras. Can you tell the difference?

This shot gives a pretty good look at how deep and dark it was in the woods.

How's this for a really big knothole?

Here's a shot of each other on a bench along the trail...

It's hard to see in this picture, but there were a lot of places where water continually seeps through the soft rocks, as the glaciers and snowfields continue to melt over the summer. They think this constant flow of water and the resulting moisture is one of the things that has protected this area from fire over the years, and allowed the trees to grow so large.

We saw a lot of these white berries throughout the park. I'm not sure what they are, so if you know, you have an opportunity to educate me. I'm guessing they turn some color other than white when they ripen.

And here are a few more shots from along this interesting nature walk...

Another Pretty Cascade

There were soooo many beautiful spots in this park - here are shoe shots from another one.

Red Bus

There are shuttles that run through the park on a regular basis, kind of like a city bus, but they don't run after Labor Day, so we did no see any of them. The red busses are old busses that have been restored, and give guided tours through the park. I thought they stopped on Labor Day also, but apparently not. among other things, it would be one way to be sure you could get to Logan Pass without any parking difficulties. Tour busses and shuttles have reserved parking places.

View From Footbridge

This stop had a footbridge across the stream, allowing a different view of the cascades. It was interesting that horses have the right of way on this bridge - they made all the pedestrians clear off when the riders came by.

End of Day 2

After a somewhat easy day today (relatively speaking, of course), we will be up early again tomorrow for the long drive to Waterton Lakes.

Next Page: Waterton Lakes