Going West 2013

The views from Going to the Sun Road and the Hidden Lake Trail are awesome! We took the shuttle bus from the campground to Logan Pass, about 30 miles. Part of the road passes along Lake McDonald, then follows McDonald Creek before ascending to the pass. This road is carved into the side of the mountain. The virtue of the shuttle is I don’t have to drive so I get to sightsee. As the road winds up the mountain waterfalls and meadows come into view. Several of the falls are over 400 feet high. Most of the views are across the valleys so they are displayed against the rock and greenery of the mountainsides. Once at Logan Pass we walked the Hidden Lake trail. The trail crosses an Alpine meadow with small streams and wildflowers in abundance. This portion is a boardwalk with stairs for the steeper inclines. The meadows are interspersed with ridges of rock so from above they look a bit like waves. As we continued to climb on the trail we left the meadow area and entered a rockier area. Here the trail is gravel. Along with the beautiful mountain views we saw five Big Horn sheep on a ridge above a snowfield. A bit further on the trail passes through a wooded area. Here we encountered a Mountain Goat and her baby. They are not afraid of people so we were able to get within a few feet without disturbing them. At the end of the trail at the lake overlook there were many more goats. The view of the lake and surrounding mountains is wonderful. We ate lunch accompanied by a goat or two and some Columbian Ground Squirrels, which look more like prarie dogs. They were cleaning up some crumbs left by someone. On the way back down we encountered more goats, again several with kids. We were hoping to see one or two in the distance, getting to see them up close was a real treat. After a while we got the shuttle back to Apgar. As we left the parking lot there was a traffic jam. We looked out the bus window to see three large Bighorn sheep looking directly at us. That was the cause of the traffic, but again we were fortunate to be where the sheep came out of the trees. The ride back down was as pretty as the trip up. Tonight we’ll probably go to the ranger program, then try to post the last few days.