June 17 Glacier

Sunday, June 17

Happy Father’s Day! No signal so Bryan and Matt  won’t reach us today.  

It is 47 degrees this morning.  Still very cloudy and damp, but not raining.  First order of business is showers at Johnson’s campground in St. Mary’s.  We showered here years ago and it is pretty much the same, and we waited a minute or two while they finished being cleaned.  6 minute showers felt great!  These beautiful ferns were outside the showers - so soft!

We go into Glacier and note that Rising  Sun campground is not full, so we grab a site there to come back to  tonight.  

Decent site in the shadow of cliffs, surrounded by large trees but everything is still wet. The ground is covered with pine needles and other mulch type material, so we spread a towel on the floor of the Trek to keep from tracking in too much “stuff”. Must be an older campground because more recent ones seem to have much smaller sites in the "pack 'em in" spirit.

We continue into the park, this time stopping at several pull-outs and do short walks.  With all the moisture, it almost feels like a rain forest!  

 The road turns and twists alongside lakes, forests,

 and in some cases, burned areas.

 You can see tiny Wild Goose Island behind us.  We sometimes offer or are asked to take a photo of people, and one of three girls offered to take ours in return.

How beautiful, even in this weather!

The walk to Baring Falls was a little longer.  Or maybe it just seemed longer because I kept stopping to take photos of the wildflowers!

The water is high and powerful.

Some of the wildflowers:  buckwheat,

 Paintbrushes and mountain rose,

 and one of my favorites - bear grass, which can be short and sparklery, or fuller and fluffy.

 Don't know this one yet, but it is a delicate bluish purple, or is it purplish blue?

 We stopped when I first saw some bear grass and I clambered up a steep bank and tromped around in a burnt area to get some pictures of these rare flowers!  Then, a half mile down the road, they were  everywhere, lol.

Actually, some of the remaining burnt stumps of trees caught my eye, too, as they had really interesting patterns.  I'd like someone to explain how these were created because the circles were parallel to the length of the the tree - not like growth rings....??

 This side of the park is much nicer than the west and until Going to the Sun Road opens all the way, sites that are accessible will be very busy.  It rains lightly on and off.  Glad I brought my raincoat!  Somehow it doesn’t seem right to be carrying an umbrella here.

As the sky got darker, the photos look more like black and whites.

Back to our Campsite and Greg collects some wood to supplement what we have.  He barely gets the fire going, though, when the rain begins again.  'Twas not meant to be.

Visiting Glacier in June, we are told, is a crap shoot.  On one hand it is not as crowded, on the other some of the trails and roads may be closed and they usually get the most rain in May and early June.

Though I can’t get a photo, we enjoy watching and listening to some kind of hawk that is near the cliffs behind our site.  The only other wildlife we’ve seen today were the whistle pigs and a few robins (they are the most often spotted bird).  Maybe the animals are trying to stay dry as well.

Both the park ranger and the camp host come by briefly, but other than that it is a quiet evening with everyone pretty much hunkered down.  Once again I am glad we aren’t in a tent!

Spaghetti and Meatballs a la Ragu for dinner.