August 20 2011 East Glacier

We drove up to the St Mary campground in East Glacier. We stayed for 10 days. This may take a couple of posts. We saw a lot!

East Glacier Lodge, outside and then inside. It was built by the railroad companies to get people to ride their trains.

A railroad ad for Glacier.  John at the East Glacier train station. The Amtrak runs just south of the park. It has a depot in East Glacier.  In the 1920’s people would take the train to East Glacier, stay in the Lodge, then horseback ride to the other lodges, chalets and tent camps thru the park. Then board the train on the west side and go home.

TPs out the window of the bus, driving thru the Blackfeet reservation next to the park. Wildflowers-a thistle

columbine

this young man is from Holland. They drove by the bus and saw our rubber guard snake and freaked out. Leaning out the windows telling us we had a snake under the bus. He and his family were in one of those RV rents  RVs. Twilight view from our campsite

flowers on the hike, There were a bunch up there. Camus, shooting stars

maybe laurel

a mountain goat. We saw a couple dozen on the hike. Hidden lake.

John with the closed due to bear activity sign. we could not hike down to the lake because a female and her cub were in the area.  John is behind the sign, I wonder if he is considered a bear? another goat

an old goat with the goats. . . a  fields of wildflowers. It was a late start to summer, so we got to see the spring flowrs at this altitude in August. We didn’t mind.

a Columbian ground squirrel, and my hand in a grizzly bear paw print

The view going down the east side of the pass, and St Mary lake. It is glacial melt, so most of the water in the park is a turquoise color.