Glorious Fall: Blackfoot, Glacier, Missions

 This is a glorious fall, and we've been blessed to enjoy it fully with trips to Glacier, the Missions, the Swan and the Blackfoot corridors.

Some of this has been just to get away on long drives to enjoy the color.

We've also stayed at the Laughing Horse Lodge in Swan Lake and attended the Glacier Two Med Alliance annual meeting in East Glacier Park.

Earlier, we had an ill-fated driving trip to Folsom Lake area of northern California, cut short by Katie catching Covid, which turned us around so we didn't infect Katie's parents.

Whew!

My favorite was the Sept. 28 drive from Swan Lake to East Glacier, experiencing the cottonwoods along the Middle Fork of the Flathead and the golden aspen in the Two Med and Lake Creek country of Glacier.I had usually reserved a trip along the Middle Fork for mid to late October when the larch are at their golden peak, so it was great to see the cottonwood and aspen color.

Our biggest hike was in the Missions to Cold Lake near Condon.

We've been struggling with what Katie can do as she battled Covid and severe anemia.  

While at the Glacier Two Med meeting we hiked in the Lubec Lakes area and then went with Laurie Lintner from Looking Glass Pass to a favorite ridge into Glacier.  It was blustery the day of our hike there.

The ground cover has been the main attraction for me ---- the reds, yellows, oranges and purples and deep green colors spangling the forest floor.

I've taken my backcountry skis in for a tune-up.  Some years I've been skiing by now.  Always pays to prepared.

Devil's Glen, Waterton Lakes, Glacier Park

We had a perfect day for the perfect Glacier Goose Island photo on St. Mary Lake

Katie strolling the Janet Lake shoreline

Katie with the Porcupine Quills behind her

 The smoke has abated somewhat. It's still there, just not as thick, so the outline of the mountains is visible.That makes getting out more palatable. 

We did a beautiful day hike to Devil's Glen in the Dearborn part of the Bob Marshall Wilderness and then spent three days in Waterton and Glacier National parks.

I had forgotten how beautiful the Devil's Glen area is because I've been returning to the Falls Creek part of this area more frequently.  Within less than three miles the translucent green Dearborn River flows through a sometimes high and jagged limestone canyon beneath Steamboat Mountain on the Rocky Mountain Front.  The canyon disappears, but the river cascades over patchworks of limestone.

Because I let our smog-filled summer keep me home much too often I developed a pretty severe case of cabin fever that Katie fixed by planning a trip to our favorite Waterton Lakes National Park north of Glacier in southern Alberta.

We spent three days hiking and enjoying the park for the three days immediately following the Canadian Labour Day holiday.  We arrived the day after and found the townsite and park deserted.  What a welcome contrast to Glacier Park, which we visited on our way home.

As usual, we saw black bears on the road to Waterton's Red Rocks Canyon

We walked the shore of Cameron Lake the first day, and the second day took the boat across Waterton Lake back to Glacier Park where we hiked 8-miles roundtrip to Janet Lake.  I hadn't spent much time there in more than 30 years and marveled at its beauty.  The dominant peaks above the lake are Thunderbird and the Porcupine Quills. Glacial waters fill it as well as Lake Frances above it.  We had stayed at Lake Frances three years ago on a Hole in the Wall destination trip that started at Bowman Lake.

As a side note for the record, I got my eighth COVID vaccination on Monday, and on our first day at Waterton experienced painful side effects that included body aches and extreme fatigue.  I didn't let it stop me and by Wednesday was back to my old, chipper self.

The final day we drove back, enjoying a leisurely visit to Glacier's St. Mary's valley.  We had set out to hike Sun Point, but to our surprise and dismay couldn't find parking!  This on a mid-week, post-Labor Day.  Glacier, unlike Waterton, was crawling with people all vying for the same sights along the Going to the Sun Road.

So, we retreated to the Red Eagle Lake Trail near the park entrance and had a nice hike to the shores of St. Mary Lake.  We encountered only a couple of other hikers.  The weather was the best of the trip with clear visibility and there we found our best photos.

I'm glad folks around the U.S. and the world are enjoying the park, but with large bus tours from international companies like Globus and Collette, the park has become a zoo.

My advice is to go off-trail in Glacier or confine your hikes to the U.S. 2 park portals and trailheads on the southern end of the park. 

I should mention that we also finished our Midnight Hill traverse near Rogers Pass, this time coming up the short hike from Montana 200 just west of the pass on an old logging road.  Possibly skiable.

At the Dearborn's Devil's Glen

The Devil's Glen spectacle