Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Crown of the Continent

Logan3

"My left side – it's my best side."

Logan4

"Hurry up with the photo! It's cold out here."

The Colombian ground squirrel was shivering as I was snapping its picture.

Well, the cold air was not my fault. We were, after all, in National Glacier Park in Montana.

Glacier9

Where even the goats wear a thick coat of fur.

Glacier24

It was a bit chilly. But how can you quibble about a few bits of Fahrenheit, when you have views like these:

Glacier1

Glacier4

Glacier21

Glacier3

Glacier11

Glacier2

Logan5

Glacier12

Where the flowers look like paintbrushes.

Logan7

And the rocks provide the perfect color palette.

Glacier13

Glacier15

While nature sculpts art into stones and tree trunks:

Glacier18

Glacier26

The views were big, but little details were just as rewarding if you paid attention. For example, spot the curly-horned ram here:

Logan6

How about prairie dogs (why do they not look like dogs at all?):

prairiedog

The aftermath of the Robert Fire of 2003 provided us with the unique opportunity of walking through a young forest where new pine trees barely came up to the waist:

Glacier7

We supplemented our hikes with a ride on the legendary red bus. I highly recommend it.

Glacier5

Especially if you get Norman as your guide:

Glacier16

Not only did he regale us with the history the park, he also led us straight to a black bear!

Glacier6

Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the bear.

Count on a return visit, Montana.

Glacier19