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| Our last full day in the park we hiked the St. Mary Falls trail, down in the valley east of Logan Pass. The trail passes by numerous waterfalls on the St. Mary River and on Virginia Creek, terminating at Virginia Falls. |
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| St. Mary Falls |
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| Disney again overdid it with the blue-green dye. |
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This guy before Virginia Falls was nice
enough to let me take his picture. I didn't
get a close up of his painting, but you can
zoom in. Nice little rendering.
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The uppermost foot of Virginia Falls. The
cool misty blast was delicious after a hot uphill hike and made us literally hold onto our hats. |
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| Sculpted strata beneath Virginia Falls. |
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Megan spied this gal hopping around in the froth of the creek.
The American Dipper, Cinclus mexicanus, a rare species which
nests only in vigorous mountain streams. A moment later she
flew up to . . .
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| . . . her nest! I think this is just about the loveliest home I've ever seen. Go back a couple of pictures to see if you can spot it from afar. |
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| On our way back to camp we stopped for this mama crossing the road with her two cubs. We got to watch them for a while tearing up plants and munching on the roots. Best traffic jam ever. |
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| After a bit she lumbered off down the hill, and her little ones eventually followed. One . . . |
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| . . . two. |
Because you got off the beaten path, you saw much that the vast majority of visitors never see. The lichen, mosses, leaves, forests, mountains, snow, waterfalls, creeks, lakes, birds, goats, and of course, bears - were viewed from the personal perspective unfettered by a camera's lens as you said (me, paraphrasing). Your narratives add dimension and greatly enrich the viewer's experience. These photos - and their jsubjects - are simply beautiful. I could feel your joy, excitement, and even terror! Were you scared when the bears went by?
ReplyDeleteWell, while hiking we were clapping around blind corners and had our bear spray handy, but it was probably fortunate that we saw this family while in the car. Not only were they black bears (rather than grizzlies), but they seemed pretty uninterested in us. Perhaps cars aren't even on their radar, for better or worse. I think Megan may have rolled the window up a little, but seeing these three was way more joyful than startling.
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