Glacier National Park

Here we go! All the Glacier National Park photos from a couple of weeks ago (Aug 4, 2005) are finally up for your view pleasure. Click here to jump to the bottom and then scroll up to see it all unfold sequentially.

Whew! All this scenery can be exhausting! At this point its high time to head back towards Bozeman, where we need to be tonight (and we still have 3+ hrs to drive to get there! What a trip!)

Of course a scene like this deserves a wide angle view (click here for the hi-res version).

And here we are at Lake Mary, looking back to the west! We've traversed GNP, and we are at the eastern border now...

Here's a closeup of that same thing

As we descend, we get a nice view of a glacier across the canyon

Looking to the south in the direction of the Bob Marshall Wilderness

High time for a really panoramic view of the whole thing to show you what it looks like up here... (again, click here for the high-res version in all its megapixel glory).

Now look ahead - Woo hoo! We're at the top, looking down across the divide to the east!

Now look back out over the canyon we drove up this morning...

Getting dizzy? Quick, take a look off to the side of the road...

After a while you begin to understand why they call this 'Going To The Sun Highway'

And up ahead on our left

Looking across the canyon

I like this one a lot too - you really get a sense of how blue the sky is here.

Back to the vistas - here's a pretty shot of one of the peaks through the trees. We're getting near the pass at this point

And another pretty shot.

I DO know what these are - Indian Paintbrush, in their more traditional orange coloring. Down in the Beartooths, we see a lot more on the fuscia end of the spectrum...

Again, I don't know what these are either. I just like the way the sunlight and shadows played acros the blossoms.

A nice closeup shot

I can't remember what these are either - someone help me out here.

Of course it wouldn't be a here's-the-Cryders-in-Montana photoshoot without some wildflowers, so here you go. I'm not sure what these are.

Here we are, doing the tourist pose. You'll notice there's quite a bit of haze - that's because we're going through in August and we've already started the fire season... so things aren't quite as crystal clear as they would be in June or early July. Still pretty though...

Here's a nice shot looking across the valley, through a sea of flowers

Remember that big ridge we saw down below? Well now we are traversing our way up and across it (from left to right in the previous pictures)

And how's this for picturesque?

Want something a little more panoramic? Try this on for size...

Want a closer view of that ridge? How's this...

Followed by a nice shot of the mountains again.

And a little further up still...

Here we are looking upstream at the water that rushes through the channel and into the hole

Looks pretty clear, huh? You can see all the way to the sandy bottom here, some 25 feet down. I was very tempted to dive in and see if I could make it that far down...

And here's the afore mentioned pool - looking down into it.

Plus a very cool shot of the water that carved it. You are looking down into a very deep channel here that feeds the pool you saw below - that thing under the water is a huge 60' tree that is submerged 10-15 feet down.

Here's a nice closeup of the color and texture of some of that same rock...

How does a tree grow right out of the middle of this stuff, anyway?

Down by the river, there is an awful lot of exposed rock

And here's a particularly deep pool right behind us. I put on the brakes and turned around to get a better look at this one...

This was a neat shot, looking up the side of the canyon to our south. The sun is at just the right angle to reveal the rippled features of the canyon wall...

That is me, with a wriggly little cutthroat on the line.

I think this one is cool too... very nice son!

And this one is even better!

Oooh, I like this one...

While I was busy fishing I handed the camera to Micah and ecnouraged him to take some more shots of water. Here are some of the better ones he snapped...

That is me, a few minutes before I went in.

You can see how the rock slopes down into the streambed here - VERY slick when wet! That's Malachi, casting in the background.

When the rock formed, there were huge air pockets trapped in the molten basalt - these form really cool "holes" in the riverbed, some of them quite large (I know, because I managed to fall into one and I would have gone completely over my head if I had not grabbed onto a protuding ledge)

Here's an example of that weathering - I believe this is basalt.

The stream is crystal clear, and you can see how the water has eroded the rock to create deep pools and beautifully pitted rock.

Here's the fam, standing on that bridge.

Looking down the stream