The Montana "Man Trip", part VII: Glacier National Park
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Laura: I helped plan our day in Glacier National Park and chose a loop route that would allow us to drive a lot of the park without seeing the same thing twice: coming into the west side of the park by Apgar Visitor Center, driving east on Going to the Sun Road, south on HW 89 and MT-49, and then west on HW 2. We stopped at the visitor center to ask if this was doable in one day. The ranger seemed tired of such questions and said, "sure", so we enthusiastically went ahead with our plan. It ended up being a long, but fantastic day! I drove the first part, on Going to the Sun Road, because John and Uncle John do not like driving in crowds and we had heard that part of the park gets wall-to-wall. I am pretty patient with people stopping in the middle of the highway to take photos and parking with half of their cars still on the road, so it worked out. The traffic wasn't bad for most of the drive and there was so much to look at that I was glad to not feel pressure to drive quickly. We stopped at many pulloffs and John also took some photos out of the sunroof of the car. This was another day of variable, but mostly glorious, weather, that encouraged us to keep the windows down and sunroof open.
Here are a few photos (including many long-exposure photos) by John from Going to the Sun Road. The first four are from McDonald Falls and then most are from the road between there and Logan's Pass.
This picture and the next are actually composites of about 10 short exposures each that were blended in Photoshop for the long-exposure effect. John doesn't think it worked as well as an actual long-exposures, but didn't want to dig the tripod out in the crowd. Maybe with more practice...
Many of these are from the parking pulloff just before (just west) of the Logan Pass Visitor Center. If you look closely (actually, we can't even see them when we zoom into this photo), there are Mountain Goats on the scree near the center of this photo. I was walking along the boardwalk at the pulloff near Logan Pass when I overheard a lady talking to her kids about binoculars. I asked if she wanted to borrow mine and the enthusiastically did. When I asked what they were looking at, she explained that she had spotted mountain goats on the opposite slope, with her naked eyes! We got to watch these amazing animals (2 adults and 2 kids) nimbly maneuver down the scree, over a small cliff, and down into the valley below. It was an amazing sight, but I still can't believe she spotted them from so far away.
The following is a timelapse of about 3 minutes, with 1 photo every second, compressed into 12 seconds. John says the clouds were moving by the mountain, but that they were not moving in such a way that they would be captured well as a long-exposure photo, so this allowed him to show the cloud movement. I think it turned out great!
A long-exposure photo of moving clouds
Uncle John and the Logan Pass Visitor Center
We wondered why a kid was carrying his sled up to the visitor center, but he knew more about the trail conditions behind the building than we did! We saw a few lucky kids hike up the trail only to sled all the way back down.
The Colombian Ground Squirrels were squeaking loudly to each other and this one was apparently very used to people. He was acting as the sentry for a colony who had set up their burrow system right next to the sidewalk, and was not going to leave his post, no matter how many cameras were pointed at him.
A lot more snow than we expected to see in late June
We were surprised to see a glacier from Going to the Sun Road. I had done a bit of Googling and had not read about an easily accessible glacier, but thought they all required hikes to see them. I was wrong! Here is Jackson Glacier!
After we braved the tourists on Going to the Sun Road, we found ourselves mostly on our own on highways 89, 49, and 2. We are not sure where all of our fellow roadsters went, but it was nice to have the road to ourselves. The roads did exit the park for a bit and get progressively curvier, but were beautiful and had totally different scenery.
One of the vistas we enjoyed on the eastern end of our loop drive
I did not choose many hikes, but knew we should stretch our legs at least a little bit. The 0.6 mile roundtrip trail to Running Eagle Falls had me the most excited, so I decided to make it a priority. We went a little bit out of our way, as we turned right off of MT-49 onto 2 Medicine Road and drove along Lower Two Medicine Lake to get to the trail. The detour and short hike were well worth it!
The water level of Running Eagle Falls was perfect to show off the confluence of the main waterfall with the water flowing from the sinkhole underneath it.
I had also read about Silver Staircase, which is not a very well marked waterfall along the south side of HW 2, between the towns of Singleshot and Nimrod. We shared the beauty with only one other family and got to get our feet wet in a mountain stream.
Meet Lucy Rae O'Connell, born Wednesday, December 11th, 2019 at 5:04pm! Nearly three years in the making, she is finally here and we couldn't be happier! John: Last week, we confirmed that "Elrod" (our name for the fetus) was still breech, so scheduled appointments with a chiropractor and the OB for different attempts at turning the baby. The OB appointment was set for Thursday, and we were told to come prepared for a sudden birth, just in case the procedure caused distress or labor. They said it was 50-50 if they could turn the fetus; if it didn't work, we would schedule a Cesarean section soon thereafter. We were a bit on edge that week, making preparations and a bit disappointed that we'd likely miss out on that feeling of surprise that comes with a natural birth. Wednesday morning, we got that surprise! I had decided to forego duck hunting and go to work that day. I was just nervous about Thursday and wasn't feeling motivated...
We have lived five minutes from the Crab Orchard Lake spillway for nearly six years. We have never visited the spillway itself. I have spent time in the woods right next to it and we have walked part of the levee with Lucy, but we never made it down to the spillway. I wasn't even sure if you could get to a viewpoint because it looks fenced off from the road. Last week, we had a really nice afternoon and Laura was out fishing. It was about time to feed Lucy, so I warmed up a bottle, clothed her in clashing layers, and drove us down to the waterway. We took the little footpath around the fence to the levee and sat on the concrete wall during the sunset. I hadn't brought my camera gear but knew that I wanted to go back soon. A few days later, Laura and Micah were looking for a spot for an easy walk with the stroller so I suggested walking the levee to the spillway. Laura dropped me off at the creek so that I could have a head start sh...
We convinced my mom to come up from cozy Florida to Southern Illinois in February of all times to meet baby Lucy. She was welcomed at STL by snow and temps in the teens. Needless to say, we didn't venture out much for a few days. But by Sunday, I was getting cabin fever and the forecast was calling for temps in the 50s, so I planned a driving tour for the four of us. We started out at Kinkaid Spillway. Mom was very impressed by the volume and force of the water pouring out of the lake and over the falls. We couldn't cross at the beach because it was under water, but she was daring enough to walk the muddy path in from the dam to get right up next to the falls. I had forced myself to leave my tripod and filters behind, knowing that I would spend too much time taking pictures if I had them, but I still managed to take a few shots without them. Next, we drove to the top of Fountain Bluff to watch eagles...
Age is but a number, and "old" can also be "young" depending on the frame of reference. Micah and I, a pair of thirty-somethings, traveled to the Cache River to see some "young" trees cast against the "old" Milky Way galaxy and it was a mystical trip. We had managed to get out to Kinkaid Spillway and Little Cedar Spillway in May during the new moon, when the Milky Way is most visible, but most nights during that week were cloudy. We were hoping to get out once more, so I did some planning and found a few nights where the roughly half-moon would set early enough to give us a few hours of dark. Early in our summer Milky Way planning back in April, Micah had the great idea to shoot from the Lower Cache Access on Perks Access Road, which faces southward, and therefore works well for seeing the Milky Way core. I, of course, always make things more complicated. I was thinking about trying to take a picture of the state champion bald cypress tre...
This post will be a break from the usual travel theme. Most of these pictures are from outdoor adventures, but the hikes are not the main subject. We already described these hikes in previous posts about a trip to the western Shawnee and the Ozarks and a trip to some Shawnee waterfalls . Instead, Laura is the main subject! And the post isn't so much about solely celebrating nature's beauty, but rather Laura's beauty! Having learned that she is pregnant, Laura asked me to take some nice portraits of her before and during she started to show. These portrait series also compose my first serious foray into portrait photography. We both studied up beforehand: Laura learned posing tips, I focused on portrait photography. Here we will share what we considered to be the "PG13" photos that resulted from the sessions. First, we hiked about an hour to a waterfall in the western Shawnee forest. We had the place to ourselves...
After dinner, we grabbed the gear and headed down to the creek. The Milky Way wasn't quite yet over the creek and the lodge patios were lit, so we tried to incorporate the lodge itself. This picture took a lot of time to edit. It is a composite of two photos: one about 20 seconds long to capture the Milky Way and one about 4 seconds long (and at lowest sensitivity) to capture the lodge without it just appearing like a supernova. Then I essentially painted the two pictures together in photoshop. By the time we sorted the lodge shot out, the Milky Way had risen over the creek. There are several wing-dams in the creek that channelize the river, creating some nice ripples. We had thought we'd have to wait for the moon to light the rocks and trees, but the lodge did a nice job of casting soft light on the scene. This photo is actually a stack of several (5-10) photographs, each 20 seconds long. Stacking allows the compute...
It had been raining and raining that week, so we decided to go to Bulge Hole EA. It has been referred to as the "valley of many waterfalls" in the Shawnee, so we figured we'd find a few with the recent rains. It has been 24-36 hours since the last rain, so the flow was a bit less than anticipated, but most of the falls were still running. We didn't even make it far off the old forest road trail before we found little cascades and an awesome formation where water was running across the bedrock, carving braided channels throughout. It was the first time that we had ever really seen water running like this over bedrock since the bedrock in this region is often only exposed atop bluffs, where water doesn't collect much. The combination of mosses, lichens, rock, and water made for an especially textured landscape. We crossed the "creek" and started to parallel the valley north on the west side, stopping for some spring beauty fl...
Thirteen years ago, we had been dating for a few months and I took Laura on a camping trip to Rabbit Key on the Gulf Coast in Everglades National Park. We camped on the beach and had the island to ourselves. Just look at that picture! So much puppy love! We wanted to recreate that experience, and were headed down to Florida to meet our friends, the MacDonalds at Disney. So, started doing some research and discovered that the Big Bend Paddling Trail has campsites for kayakers who are transiting the long-distance passage. Technically, the campsites are not available for canoeists or powerboaters, but when I looked at the booking site, it looked like they hadn't been booked for months. We booked it, spent so many hours researching the camping, the navigation, and the fishing. Quite a few folks on the Florida Sportsman were a big help. Then we loaded the truck with the camping gear and whatever we'd need for Disney and headed ...
I had asked everyone to bring one nice outfit for portraits. We finally had some downtime and good weather, so I took pictures of Laura and Johnny. I have enjoyed combining long-exposures with portraits. I'm not sure if the models love holding still so long. There are multiple takes of this shot where Laura's hair is all over the place in the wind. It was already mid-afternoon and I wasn't sure that we'd have time to drive to and hike to Mt. Henry Lakes. The forest service roads took a lot longer to drive than I had anticipated when looking at maps back home, so we elected to go to Boulder Lakes Trail which was closer than other afternoon sights. Also, the trail was supposed to be a good bit shorter than other options, which would be good for Uncle John. We arrived to find a gate blocking vehicle traffic farther out from Boulder Lakes trailhead than we had thought, making the hike just as long as Mt. Henry. I'm ...
I was falling behind Laura in the Rec Your Quarantine challenge and needed to put on some miles so that I don't lose the bet. It has been a bit warm for hiking with Lucy in the Ergo pouch, and she's not quite ready for the backpack, so we headed back to Tunnel Hill trail where I could push her in the stroller. We had made it to the Breeden Trestle bridge last time, but I was hoping to go further this time and also came prepared with the cameras this time. Soon after leaving the parking lot, we passed through the namesake tunnel. I was impressed by how much more vibrant green the vegetation along the rock walls was after all of our recent spring rains. We didn't make it far from the tunnel before Lucy got hungry and demanded that we stop to sit on a rock for a bit. While she was laying across my lap, I was delighted to notice the reflection of the tree canopy in her eyes as she stared at the leaves. I could hear water rushing just beyond ...
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