2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Glacier presents some great photographic opportunities, talk about it here.

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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by MarxMN »

Pete,

It is great to see both Bonnie and Clyde again. I always think of birds migrating south for the winter. But I suppose lake McDonald is not a bad place to go if you are a raven. I do wonder how far away they go for the summer.

The "framing tree" looks like it was deteriorating but it probably had help breaking off completely. Maybe a deer rubbing on it? maybe a human who could not resist giving it a push?

Thanks for the fall color pictures.

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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by PeteE »

MarxMN wrote:Pete,

It is great to see both Bonnie and Clyde again. I always think of birds migrating south for the winter. But I suppose lake McDonald is not a bad place to go if you are a raven. I do wonder how far away they go for the summer.

B&C don't go anywhere in the summer. They are busy raising their offspring close by but away from the crowds. Ravens are very territorial. B&C stay in the Lake McDonald area year round.
I think I did see Clyde one year with fledglings at Logan Pass. This was before I knew them as Bonnie and Clyde. Logan Pass is not far from Lake McDonald--for a raven.


The "framing tree" looks like it was deteriorating but it probably had help breaking off completely. Maybe a deer rubbing on it? maybe a human who could not resist giving it a push?
No way deer broke it. I'm sure people or the recent winds "had a hand in it" 8)

Thanks for the fall color pictures.
You're welcome. :D
I've been trying to get more but the weather has kinda sucked for days now. Larches are at their peak right now.
I was out yesterday on the North Fork sighting in my rifle "Big Bits" for deer/elk season. I stopped at Apgar and got a couple quick snaps I post later.


pete :wink:

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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by PeteE »

I got out yesterday afternoon when it looked as if it might be a nice day for some pics.
It was nice--for a while.
Here are a few snaps from Glacier View ridge.

I ended up going about 1.7 miles up the ridge and 1700ft of elevation gain--a little steep at 1000ft average elevation gain per mile. 8)
At that point I could see that the weather was going bad so I stopped and headed back down.
Good thing as you'll see in the pics below.

Didn't get much that qualified as a good image, but they are what they are.


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Huckleberry Mountain
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On the way down things were getting ugly. I was hustling to beat the weather and feeling it in quads as that trail is quite steep in places.
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Front moving in. Taken from Camas Road bridge
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I don't understand that graph, but my legs and lungs can vouch for the +-1700ft of elevation gain/loss 8)
Image

pete :wink:
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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by paul »

Nice pictures Pete! I was thinking that maybe the graph from your garmin device was affected by a sudden drop in barometric pressure due to the front moving in.
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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by Jay w »

Love the clouds. My old GPS used to give some weird elevation readings because I was crossing bridges, and I think the GPS was overlaying elevation maps with my route, but the maps don't account for the bridge. Paul has a better explanation with the barometer changes, and I think you can turn it on or off, but I couldn't quite understand the video.



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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by PeteE »

Thanks all for the comments.
The clouds were good when I got there.

Yeah Doug 8) "ridiculously steep" pretty much describes parts of that trail--on the East side of the mountain.
Kinda treacherous too when descending quickly like I was doing.

Amazing how much the lodgepole pines have grown since I moved here.
They're tall enough now to block good views most of the way up.

Good exercise. I'm still feeling it :)

I've been up the West side part way. I've never done the whole thing since it'd be a LONG walk back to my truck.
I usually do my shooting at the range down near Great Northern flats.

I suspect Paul is right about the pressure change causing the weird graph.
Jay, I watched the video. And I did calibrate the barometer here at home.
I always thought the elevation profile was plotted using topo map contour elevation info in conjunction with GPS location---and not barometric info.

Might hunt tomorrow depending on weather. Dunno where yet.
Might even ride out to a place near Doug 8)--off Mountain Meadow road.

later and thanks again all

pete :wink:
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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by PeteE »

dpratt wrote:
PeteE wrote:Might hunt tomorrow depending on weather. Dunno where yet.
Might even ride out to a place near Doug 8)--off Mountain Meadow road.
Good luck if you get out. I'm already hearing gun blasts around here; maybe it is you!
Ha!
I decided to wait until tomorrow--maybe.
The weather was a little ugly this morning. Supposed to clear up and be nice albeit colder.
I've turned into a fair weather wienie in my old age 8)


Here are some pictures from yesterday at Lake McDonald.
It's always interesting to see how quickly the weather can change in this area.
When I left Kalispell around 1PM there was little wind and nice puffy white clouds.
I arrived at Lake McDonald just before the change hit there.


Shot at 1:45PM. The lake was still pretty calm although the clouds were piling up in the distance along the Continental Divide.
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1:55PM. Still one little blue patch of sky visible at top of the frame as the clouds pile up to the east.
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2:00PM. little ripples as the wind pics up.
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2:02PM. Looking back from same spot at approaching weather. Still nice blue sky and sunshine to the west.
Lake beginning to show ripples from wind strengthening.

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2:30PM.Since I lost the reflection, I drove to the lodge. I had seen people watching something on Mt Brown the last 2-3 trips out to Lake McDonald.
So I went over to see what they were watching. And it was Golden Eagles--lots of them! :shock:
I don't recall anyone doing this in the past, but maybe I just wasn't paying attention.
At any given time there were 5-6 golden eagles soaring around near the summit of Mt Brown.
They told me they were passing through as they migrated south.
Very cool. Learn something new every day.

I have seen golden eagle occasionally on the west side but see bald eagles far more often.
These folks said the golden eagles also nest here on the west side--including on Mt Brown.

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Clyde followed me down to the boat dock. No really good picture opportunities so I chatted with tourists at Clyde watched 8)
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3:20PM. Back down to the beach where I was earlier. The wind has picked up considerably.
Whitecaps now, but the color in the lake is still good.

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Framing tree still works for a nice picture.
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There's still good solid wood here. Someone snapped the limb off imo. Maybe accidentally, but it still irks me that it got broken off.
Image

pete :wink:
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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by tibber »

really lovely photos: great color, great light. And very cool about the Golden Eagles.

I've been enjoying the previous posts as well. Thx so much!
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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by tibber »

dpratt wrote:Nice shots. Coincidentally, I took a drive and walked through Trail of the Cedars yesterday. Been a while since I've been there, and first time in the park since January. A recent trip to see Ross Creek Cedars, south of Troy, and to Seeley Lake to see Gus, the US' largest western larch, made me want to take this stroll again. Always a peaceful walk through the ancient woods. The trees are huge, but I didn't see any as big as those at Ross Creek.

Snow flurries and a bit breezy, but not so much in the thick woods. It was more crowded than I expected, but when isn't it these days.
ya walking thru the Ross Creek Cedars is sure spectacular. It was really low light and slightly rainy when we were there a few years ago, nonetheless I took some video. Trail of the Cedars is impressive altho I haven't hiked there in nine years.
Didn't know about Gus, where abouts does he lurk, I mean larch, ha! Seeley Lake is a big area.
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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by teapot57 »

Keep doing what you do, Pete! I have been enjoying all of your fall photos. You have quite the eye for photography.
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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by PeteE »

Thanks tibber, dpratt, and teapot57 :)

I'll try to keep on keeping on 8)
The plan for tomorrow is after some work duties to get my winter tires put on Jaybird.
My new "all season" tires didn't work too well on the ice yesterday and this morning
Temp here at daylight at my apartment was 1F .
Then, I'll ride out to the park in the afternoon for some pictures.

I realize that I'm not providing much variety in the way of pics. So as time goes on I'll try to do better in that respect.
I have to watch my budget. The cost of gasoline, truck maintenance, et al puts a sizable dent in it.


Talking about big trees...
The Ross cedars are indeed a sight to see if you have time. I didn't have a good camera 10 years ago when I went with my girl friend.
I need to get back up there now that I do have a decent camera.

Girl friend and I used to drive a lot of the dirt roads around Missoula years ago.
One day we ran across "Big Pine", Montana's largest known Ponderosa Pine and 3rd largest Ponderosa Pine in the USA.
Ponderosa Pine is Montana's state tree.
Go here:

https://missoulian.com/news/local/stand ... f4a9e.html

Thanks again all :)
later

pete :wink:
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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by PeteE »

dpratt wrote: Sorry to continue to hijack your thread with non-Glacier stuff...
Sounds like you had a fun trip! I would love to do a trip like that.
Not to worry about hijacking my thread :)
Not a lot going on so ALL input is welcome.

The Big Pine is close to I-90 as "the crow flies" but you need to get across the Clark Fork either up or down river a few miles.
We came down through the mountains on some dirt road from US 12.

I didn't make it to the park yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow since it's supposed to be a nice day.

pete :wink:
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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by PeteE »

Yesterday was supposed to be nice, but the inversion didn't quite lift out as was predicted as you can see here:

Image

The buck you see here chased another equally big rival buck across the road right in front of me.
After chasing his rival away, he came back across the road to pursue the doe that was down by the lake.
Hard to get a good shot of him since he kept the trees between he and I. I saw several more nice whitetail bucks yesterday driving out to Avalanche.
The rut is clearly ON!! :D

Image

Not a soul in sight at the lodge when I got there. Didn't see B&C either.
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This whitetail doe and her fawn doe were "chewing" as they lay under a tree between the parking lots.
Escaping the attention of the local bucks...at least for the moment.
8)
Image

Here's a few pics from the Avalanche Creek Gorge.
You can see that the creek water level and flow is way down compared to the spring.

Image

All these creek pics taken with my newly aquired used Sony f3.5-5.6 16-105mm zoom at very slow shutter speeds between 1/4 second and 1/10 second.
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pete :wink:

PS

I was wearing micro spikes... But before setting up my tripod on cliff edges like this one, I thought it prudent to poke around in the snow to make sure I was on solid rock.
Falling into the creek would have been a bummer
8)
Image
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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by calicotraveler »

Great photos! I've never personally been to Glacier this time of year, so am really enjoying seeing these.
:D
The mountains are calling and I must go.
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Re: 2019 "Snaps" Around Gracier National Park...plus

Post by Jay w »

Some nice shots and I enjoy the narrative. I see you have a bit of snow. Tonight it was a bit icy riding the bike (just about went down).

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