August Hiking in Glacier including Three Falls Hike - August 2022

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tibber
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August Hiking in Glacier including Three Falls Hike - August 2022

Post by tibber »

First of all I'd like to wish you all a very Happy Holidays and Happy New Year🥂! Like many of you, I'm glad we've met either in person or virtually. We have great common ground with our love of Glacier Park and I'm so glad everyone shares when they can.

8-1-2022 (written 12-3-2022) drive from the ranch to Chester to St Mary KOA.  After breakfast I left the ranch. They were on harvest break starting that day as the winter wheat was cut and now they had to wait for the spring wheat to finish ripening.  When I got to Chester I stopped at the local bank to get some change to wash the dead and mushed up grasshoppers off of Tonto 3's grill.  I discovered that if I kept washing Tonto, the grasshoppers were easier to get off when I got back to Arizona.

The drive back to Glacier National Park is a very nice drive, even if it is on the very narrow shouldered US Highway 2 (altho some of it has been widened in the last few years).  You have views to the north of the Sweet Grass Hills, the occasional train that you would see and of course, the Rocky Mountains of Glacier National Park would get larger and larger.  I don't recall seeing the wind farm at Ethridge before and wow is it large!!  I stopped at Shelby and Cut Bank looking for tent stakes as I had forgotten mine and another water filter; my Sawyer was acting up.  I finally found some tent stakes at Norman's in Cut Bank... and then come to find out; I found my stakes later, they were deep in my duffel bag.

I took Duck Lake Road (Highway 464) from Browning rather than 89.  It's much easier (less traffic) and a prettier drive.  As I got closer to the Park, I could see this pointy mountain in the distance and I couldn't figure out which one it was.  Well come to find out, the normally flat looking top of Chief Mountain looks like a pointy horned mountain from this angle.  Once I turned south on 89 I started hitting traffic.

I checked into the KOA and got a cabin just down from where we were a couple weeks ago.  I then ran over to the St Mary Visitors Center as I wanted to see what the Ranger activities were as that is not online anymore.  I stopped at the St Mary Grocery store to pick up something to eat for the next couple days. 

After my dinner I did the KOA Lake/Nature Trail walk. This is a little outlet off of Lower St Mary Lake. You can see the deer in the top photo. They would walk along this islet. ImageIt's really a pretty little walk and for much of it I was protected from the wind that would plague us the next few days.  I got the pleasure of seeing a deer and her two fawns but didn't have my regular camera with me so my phone camera pics aren't as good but the movies of them turned out fine.  There were a few of us watching them.  I think we watched for almost ten minutes as they made their way through the grass and bushes. This would be my third time seeing a deer and her twins :) as I saw a couple at the ranch.

The wildflowers are still blooming and it was nice to walk between the aspen.  There were a couple campsites still available but they were filling as I was walking.  I went to the camp store to get a Huckleberry Ice Cream.  When I got back to my cabin I got a text from a couple other Minnesota Glacier Chatters that happened to be staying here as well.  Bill and Nina came up to my cabin and we had a "Huck It" (the only place that had it of all the stores I went to in the last couple weeks was the St Mary Grocery store).  We formulated our plan for tomorrow's hike and picked the Three Falls.Image

Enjoy (includes Many Glacier which I would go to in a couple days)
and here is the drive from Chester to Glacier National Park via US Highway 2 and Duck Lake Road

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8-2-2022 THREE FALLS HIKE written 12-5-2022 Fellow glacierchatter Bill, and Nina stopped by and picked me up around 8 so we could go have breakfast at Two Dog Flats Restaurant before heading out for our hike. We decided to drive up to Sun Point Trailhead and hope to find a place to park, which turned out not to be a problem. It was VERY, VERY windy (25 MPH with gusts up to 39 and we got blasted with all that). The hike, which is normally somewhat protected by trees, is no longer that so the wind was particularly brutal.

We headed on down the trail enjoying the instant views and turquoise colored rough water. We checked out some of the wildflowers, altho they were limited. We would encounter hikers off and on all the way until the hoard at St Mary Falls. When we got out a little in the open it was quite a fight with the wind. St Mary Lake can be notorious for its winds that seem to come from Logan Pass down into the Valley. Nonetheless, the views are spectacular, especially with all the mountains around you. And now because of the effect of the 2015 Reynolds Creek fire (probably human caused) that included 500 hazard trees that were removed during that time, you get a real good visual of Goat Mountain.

The fire burned 4800 acres along the Going to the Sun Road and into the St Mary Falls area :( . (FYI also The 18,840-acre Thompson fire was the park’s largest in 2015, when 2 percent of the park burned.) We stopped at Baring Falls for just a short time. The feeling here is definitely a lot different without the tree cover; however, it's still a pretty little Falls and lots of people were enjoying playing in and around it and in the creek of the same name.

We stopped to watch a chipmunk eat its find on the top of a rock, made for some good pictures and movie as the background was pretty awesome :) . Image On the way we saw Little Chief and Joy II boats making their way to the Baring Falls dock. The dock seemed particularly low or the water was particularly high from the wave action?
Image.
As we neared some of the junctions with other trails that will take you to St Mary and Virginia Falls, the people traffic picked up even more. This area is also where you used to have complete cover from the trees that are now totally exposed.... just a little hard to get used to that "naked" feeling. We spent a short time at St Mary Falls before proceeding to Virginia Falls. In a short way from the river, the tree cover appears for the rest of the hike and the elevation starts.

You come pretty quickly to Lower Virginia Falls which is always worth a quick look-see before proceeding up to the main Virginia Falls. Two things: the wind was blowing so it was hard to shoot any pictures or movies because of the spray. Second, there must have been some sort of obstruction in the river above as the normal veil like falls had a split so it wasn't nearly as beautiful as normal.Image

We didn't stay long before heading down to the bridge that crosses the creek to get a view up toward Virginia Falls high above you. This area has such pretty rocks including in the creek. We ended up waiting a while for Nina and when she didn't show up, I made my way back up the trail where I found her sitting near the trail at Virginia Falls. On our way back to St Mary Falls we encountered a somewhat strange couple and their dog. And come to find out, the gal had injured her knee so Nina played nurse maid. Just before the St Mary Falls, we stopped and watched people jumping from the big rock platforms into the bottom of the Falls :o . I took pictures and videos. Image I don't recall ever seeing that before. I don't know what the Park Service thinks of that in regard to liability. It does look like fun and if I had known, I might have given it a shot.

We crossed the bridge and made our way through the crowds of people coming to the Falls. I have never seen so many people, and they kept coming. We started to get a little cloud cover on our way back which was nice. And even though the trees were all burned, some are exposing that white bark so it was somewhat picturesque. Bill and Nina on the trail: UL hiking below an interesting bent trunk of a very large dead tree. LL at Lower Virginia Falls UR on St Mary Falls bridge. Middle Right Bill hiking alongside the Lake. LR Nina heading toward St Mary Falls near Grizzly Point where all those burned trees are ahead. Image We stopped again at Baring Falls where my birder companions noticed a few Waxwing birds. Fortunately, I did get some decent pictures. They are very pretty birds. Image
I also saw a fat squirrel scurry off and got a picture of its backend :lol: . There was also some nice flora in the area and as usual, quite a few people enjoying being around the Falls. On our way back to Sun Point, we stopped and visited with a ranger for a few moments before getting back to the TH. She was new to Glacier Park and said she's been keeping pretty busy.

We went back to the KOA and changed before going to Frog's Cantina in St Mary for dinner in an outdoor setting with live music. It was pretty nice; I had not eaten there before but they did have Indian Fry Bread taco which was delish! My Huckleberry Margarita, while large, needed more tequila.
Top photo is at the KOA campground showing the sun setting on the lenticular clouds. Bottom photos are from Frog's Cantina at St Mary'sImage Later that evening, at the KOA, I got treated to a lovely crescent moon. Tomorrow, I would meet up with Tina and Sharon over at Many Glacier.

Part 1 of 3 to near St Mary Falls
Part 2 of 3 St Mary Falls to Virginia Falls and back to St Mary Falls including the jumpers
Part 3 of 3 St Mary Falls including jumpers and back to Sun Point and evening at the KOA

To see some more of the photos with detailed captions go to https://hikearizona.com/photoset.php?ID=68149
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8-2-2022 FISHERCAP LAKE HIKE written 12-13-2022 my last days in Glacier National Park, all good things must come to an end.  I didn't have to be in any hurry today so I took my time packing up from the St Mary KOA.  It was another WINDY day and we did have some cloud cover. I got some nice pictures on my way to St Mary including some lenticular clouds that looked like shark teeth.Image I was going to meet up with Tina and her friend Sharon for a backpack; but after reviewing the forecast with the high winds, I decided not to go.  I also think I was a little tired too.  I went to St Mary to find something for lunch and pick up my 6-packs of Huck It.

My drive to Many Glacier is always special and today, it could have been a little tricky as they close Many Glacier when it hits capacity.  However, I had a copy of the backpacking permit so I was able to go through.  Looking up the Many Glacier Valley is so stunning; even on an overcast day.  I headed for the Lodge's parking lot hoping I would find a space and because of the somewhat inclement weather, I found a spot.  I went in and around the Lodge taking some movies and pictures. Image Quite the refection of the hill in the windows.
I checked out the gift shop and then headed back to my car to eat my lunch as I had parked so that I would have a view up toward my buddy Wilbur.

I then headed over to the Swiftcurrent Inn parking lot to wait for my Canadian friends.  The wind was unbelievable and the clouds blowing it in were putting on quite a show. Image You can hear the wind in my video while I'm in Tonto 3.  There were some people out with binoculars bear watching.  The sides of these mountains always seem to have bears on them.  Tina and Sharon arrived and we went to get our cabins and unpack before heading back to Many Glacier's Swiss Lounge for dinner.  I already knew I was going to order my Trout Dip appetizer and a Huckleberry Smash :) .  Both were very good as usual.

After returning to Swiftcurrent we headed out for my last hike in Glacier, Fishercap Lake, in the hopes of seeing some moose as so far, my time in Glacier was mooseless. Well it would stay that way but we did get treated to a show with a deer and her two fawns and a moon rising.Image The hike is a short one but there is a lot of bang for the buck with the scenery.  The wind was still awful though.

The next morning we took our time as there was no hurry to get the girls up to the closed Chief Customs border for their 6 mile hike down the Belly River Trail to Gable backcountry campground.  I drove them up there and then would start my long, almost three days, trip back to Phoenix. I do like this drive on Highway 17 back to Babb and so I tried out my new phone camera. Goodbye Big Chief and Ninaki.
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I had to stop at the Park Cafe for a quick lunch that entailed huckleberry pie and a huckleberry milkshake.  Wait for it.....  I think I ODed on huckleberry :o ; I didn't think it was possible.  I couldn't finish my piece of pie.

There is major construction on Highway 89 south for the second year and they have another summer to go before they will finish.  They are doing a nice job.  Anyway, I was able to get some interesting pictures while waiting in line.  It was amazing the different perspective I got from there of the interior of the Park.  I finally took advantage of driving this route and stopped at the Dinosaur Center in Bynum MT.  I've always wanted to go there and today, I finally did.  It is really a wonderful center.  Dinosaurs are a very big thing in this area with major finds over the last few decades.Image
The Montana Dinosaur Center in Bynum, Montana is the home of the world’s first discovered dinosaur nest. The museum gallery houses the Guinness Book of World Records world’s longest dinosaur skeleton, Seismo the seismosaurus (137 feet long, 27 feet high at the hips).
I continued south on the 89 until Choteau where I veered left on Highway 287 toward I-15.  I got to go through Augusta MT where my Grandfather Fred Romain had a ranch and in fact, that's where he had his heart attack in Dec 1956 and died.  I should actually try to find the old place, the Sawtooth Ranch.  Augusta is the gateway to the Bob Marshall Wilderness and also a stop on the CDT. 

Anyway, it is a beautiful drive as you have the Rocky Mountains on your west flank and then you drive through them as you make your way to Butte.  I would see three sets of smoke in different mountains near Helena and when I got to Butte, it was covered in smoke from other fires but mostly an unusual smoke inversion.  It was clear the next day. 
A few quick tidbits: --Butte's mining operations generated over $48 billion worth of ore, making it for a time the RICHEST city in the world. --As of 2017, Butte has the largest population of Irish Americans per capita of any city in the United States.
--The upper Clark Fork River, with headwaters at Butte, is the largest Superfund site in the United States.
Video 1 includes St Mary KOA, Many Glacier and Fishercap Lake, to the border and back on 89 south Hike  You'll love my cute deer at Fishercap
Video 2 drive from Browning to and including the Dinosaur Center at Bynum MT
Video 3 Bynum to Butte 

To see some more of the photos with detailed captions go to https://hikearizona.com/photoset.php?ID=68195
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Re: August Hiking in Glacier including Three Falls Hike - August 2022

Post by Jay w »

So far, I've enjoyed the report. (Need to finish.) I never knew there was a KOA nature trail, although I've only been there for fireworks.

Seeing people jump in St. Mary makes me a bit nervous. Guess I'm old.

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Re: August Hiking in Glacier including Three Falls Hike - August 2022

Post by paul »

Nice report, I'm planning to start mine this week. Hopefully!

Those people jumping from the rocks are taking risks that they don't understand. No trained life guards, very cold water, and a strong current. All it takes is someone who isn't that strong a swimmer to panic and you have a situation that could go very badly.
We are in the mountains and the mountains are in us. - John Muir
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