Return To Glacier National Park, 2023

 In 2017 I visited Glacier with my son in law, Francisco.  We spent three days together and then met up with a photography workshop led by Andy Cook, of Rocky Mountain Reflections and photographed for another five days.  This year I met up with eight good photography buddies three days before the workshop then joined Andy Cook for another five days.  We were all completely exhausted by the time we did our last evening shoot after 8 days of hiking in the park.

On our first morning, I looked out my window at 5:30 am and the sky was on fire!  I grabbed my camera and tripod and ran for the shore of Lake McDonald.  We were staying, as before, in Apgar on the west end of the lake.  I caught the above scene and within a few minutes the colors faded.  I later talked with a ranger and he said it was unusual to experience such intense sunrises here, so I felt very lucky.

Later that same morning we made our way to the Hidden Lake and Mount Reynolds overlook.  It is about a mile and a half uphill hike from the parking lot at Logans Pass.  It was made a bit more difficult on this climb by the snow drifts we had to cross which were slushy and slippery and there were several of them, which at the time seemed endless.  Of the eight of us that started out, three of us made it all the way.  It was a rewarding trek in no small part because the views on the way up were wonderful. 

If you spend any time on the West side of Glacier, Avalanche Gorge is a must see.  Avalanche Creek flows out of Avalanche Lake just up the road from Lake McDonald (to the east).  There is a relatively contained portion of Avalanche Creek that flows through a gorge and the beauty is top notch as if flows over very colorful red rocks.  The water has a special blue green color and that along with the white water against the rocks and sides of the gorge are special.

This scene is just above the gorge.  It is a pleasant walk from here to Avalanche Lake.  I was trying to get closer to those pools of water to get the reflection of the trees but the rocks were VERY slippery and I had to retreat.  Falling and drowning are the two leading causes of death in Glacier.  

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