America the Beautiful... part II

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

I was really excited for the opportunity to spend time at Glacier, particularly given the dire predictions about climate change and the loss of actual glaciers inside the park. It was great not only getting to see one of the glaciers, but to learn about the science and culture of the park.

For the few weeks leading up to my visit, I was on pins and needles waiting for the Going-To-The-Sun Road to open. One of the great AND terrible things about Glacier is its inaccessibility - it is over 1 million acres of pristine wilderness, and there are very few ways to actually drive around the park. GttS Road is only open for around 4 months each year, and plowing the road in the spring is notoriously difficult. 

Jackson Glacier

My initial plan was to drive across the park from the St. Mary entrance to get to West Glacier (where the seminar was being held), but the day I arrived, about 37 miles of road was still closed.

Nevertheless, I set out from St. Mary's up the GttS Road as far as I could go. Because it led to a dead end, there weren't many people on that side of the park. I first drove straight to the end of the road, at the Jackson Glacier overlook. Jackson is the 7th largest of the 25 or so remaining glaciers in the park - and one of the only ones visible from a road. Over the past 50 year, it lost almost a third of its size, and scientists think that by the year 2030, all the glaciers in the park will disappear.

I made my way slowly back to St. Mary's, stopping first at Sunrift Gorge for a quick hike to Baring Falls, but I was edgy the whole time and quickly headed back. I'm not normally a nervous hiker, but I was by myself and without bear spray, and grizzlies are a very real threat in that area. In fact, for the few days before that, the very popular Avalanche Lake hike was closed because there were too many bears in the area.

See that tiny island with a few trees? That's Goose Island - famous for being the opening shot in The Shining...

St. Mary Lake

With my Pals, Jason and Britnee

I decided to make my way to West Glacier and pick up Britnee, another teacher who was sharing a hotel with me before our seminar started the next morning. On my way to pick her up, she ran into another teacher at the airport who asked to join us. As long as he was OK with cramming into my tiny Toyota Yaris, the more the merrier, I thought. And the Road Trip Trio was formed...

The lobby (and trophy heads) of Lake McDonald Lodge

Britnee (middle school science from North Carolina), Jason (outdoor educator from Wisconsin) and I decided to drive up the GttS route from the west side, as far as we could go. We stopped to see Apgar Village and listened to a ranger talk, had huckleberry ice cream, and visited the Lake McDonald Lodge before getting to the end of the road at the Avalanche Trailhead.

The color of the glacial melt in every body of water we saw was absolutely mesmerizing. The water is so incredibly clean and clear, and the rivers almost seem to glow with their practically neon turquoise color.

We had a nice dinner in Kalispell (tried the elk sausage - good!), and the next morning we checked into the Glacier Institute Field Campus to meet the rest of the teachers. The seminar was a great blend of science and culture, highlighting the Indian tribes that once thrived here (interestingly they call themselves 'Indians' rather than 'Native Americans,' like I had always been taught). The Blackfoot, Kootenai, Salish, and Pend d'Oreille tribes all still have a presence in the area, but sounds to me like they were basically cheated out of their lands and aren't able to use it for their traditional ways of life. We were lucky enough to meet with Blackfoot tribal members for a welcome blessing and to hear about their way of life as well as preservation initiatives.

We took a short hike with Helen, a member of the Blackfoot tribe and a professor at the local college, who told us about native plants. She took us to Running Eagle Falls, also known as "trick falls" because there are actually two waterfalls in the same place. When the water level is low, the falls only come from the lower opening, halfway up the cliff. If the water level is too high, the upper falls obscures the lower falls and it just looks like one big waterfall. We were lucky - the water level was just right, and we got to see them both.

Getting to do hands-on research was one of the highlights of the week. We helped with a huckleberry monitoring project using GPS to find specific plants, watched a plankton tow to check for invasive mussel species, and helped monitor and pull invasive plant species.

Into the field we go!

Before...

... and after!

Pulled weeds in my moose socks...

Plankton tow to check for zebra and quagga
mussel larvae in the waters below Lake McDonald.

Perhaps my favorite activity of the week was our hike to Avalanche Lake. The week before, this popular hike had closed for a few days due to heavy grizzly bear activity, so we were lucky that it was open on the day of our hike. And it was truly breathtaking.

Avalanche Gorge

At the start of the hike, we crossed a footbridge and got a look at Avalanche Gorge - a lush, fern and moss covered area with sparkling turquoise/teal water. No joke, the place had to be enchanted - I kept expecting fairies or gnomes to come popping out.

Dipped my feet in... holy cow was it
 cold! The lake is fed by Sperry Glacier.

At various stops along the hike, Laura gave us a great overview of the region's geology (from the precambrian stromatolites, to evidence of thrust faults, to hundreds of trees downed by avalanche, to glacial erratics). And then we reached Avalanche Lake. Unreal.

Throughout the week, I was amazed by the quantity and diversity of the wildflowers. They were all over the park, and there were so many different kinds, in so many different shapes and colors.  Even though we learned about how some were non-native invasive species, it was still beautiful seeing them!

They were all over the
trails!

The abundance of beargrass
was particularly impressive -
they don't normally get as much
as they did this year, but it was
EVERYWHERE.

I feel like there were so many times on the trip that we "got lucky" - with perfect timing for different hikes and activities. But by far the luckiest was the opening of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, which finally opened the day before our workshop ended. So that night, right after dinner, we all took off to see the sights. Rather than going on the bigger shuttle, I went with Steph, Bethany, and Megan in Steph's car, so that we could get a better view. It was definitely worth it - the road has spectacular scenery, and we got to take our time and stop along the way.

At the summit of the mountain is Logan Pass - the Continental Divide, where one side of the mountain drains to the Pacific Ocean, and the other feeds into the Atlantic via the Gulf of Mexico. (Interestingly, I also saw Triple Divide Peak on the St. Mary side, where a watershed leading to the Arctic Ocean is also present.)











Going after dinner was also great timing, because it meant we got to watch the sunset through the pass. The colors were spectacular - and it really wasn't that scary driving in the dark!



On our final day of the workshop, we did some hands-on activities that we could bring to the classroom, such as creating glaciers and modeling soil erosion. We also had a talk on climate change and the loss of glaciers, and learned about the new methods of tracking glacial melt using satellite imagery.

The Groovy Glacier Group - a great group of amazing teachers!

A few of us were staying an extra day, so we took two cars back up GttS Road to try for a final hike. We made it to St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls - and even saw some crazy kayakers plunge around 15 feet down into the water. A fun way to end a great hike... and a great week!