Cold as Ice

HOT! It was a huge surprise when we arrived in Glacier National Park and found it to be 89 degrees! It was difficult to sleep that night, since it did not cool off much. At first we were confused, but when we entered the park we realized the elevation of the lakes were about 3,100 feet, which made the surrounding landscape look all the more impressive! Friday we we spent most of the day on the free shuttle that Glacier offers through the park. We hiked to Avalanche lake, which was beautiful. We saw western red cedars and an intensely blue lake. The rest of the day we rode the shuttle and tried to take pictures of the scenery, which proved impossible to do from inside the bus. We ended up getting back so late we had to get dinner at one of the park restaurants. We ate and then drove to our campsite.

We got up at 4:30 the next morning to ensure that we would get a campsite on the far side of the park. We drove through GNP along the Going-to-the-Sun road. We were able to see the sunrise behind the mountains, but unfortunately due to the overcast skies the lighting was not good enough to take many pictures of the glaciated peaks and valleys. We reached the far side of the park, found a campsite, and after setting up our tent, we hiked Iceberg Lake. We started at 8:30 and walked the 4.9 miles to the glacier lake. Along the way we saw a long-tailed weasel running down the trail towards us. It was so stinking cute; but it disappeared into the grass before we got a picture of it. Rats! The views were incredible, and upon reaching the Lake we decided to take advantage of the ice floating in it. There were in fact icebergs floating around in the water, so we waded out to meet them! The water was between 30 and 35 degrees near the shore. We took turns standing on the iceberg while the other took a picture...Lauren had to go out two separate times because the photos I took were sub-par. The water was so numbing that both of us while wading back to shore began to lose muscle control in our lower limbs, and because of Lauren's stature she found it hard to breathe as the water rose to her chest. After climbing out of the frigid water it took several minutes of running in circles and jumping jacks to warm our bodies up again! We hope we are ready for the Arctic Ocean!

On Sunday we felt like having a lumberjack breakfast before beginning our ascent to Grinnel Glacier! Pancakes with apple-butter and applewood smoked bacon...mmm mm good! We started the hike around 8:00 and reached the lake around 10:15. More astounding views! We met three men at the lake as they were preparing to ski down one of the glaciers in the valley. The oldest of the men has been doing this annually for nine years! As we hiked down many people seemed more astounded at our early start and summit times. Almost every person made a comment like, "Wow, up and back already?!", "you guys must love hiking", and "Did you already make it to the glacier?!".  Being from the good ol' state of Colorado we were very confused by those comments, since back home an 8:00 start time would be considered late. We saw several cinnamon colored black bears, but alas, no grizzlies, and still no bull moose!

Aren't these flowers fun?! Dr. Suess has nothing on God!

The striking emerald coloration is due to what the Park Rangers referred to as "Rock Flour".
As the Glaciers move down the mountain, the large pieces of ice rake against the rock
and grind the surface into an extremely fine powder which is washed down
into the glacial lakes. It stays suspended in the water for a long period of time and absorbs
the whole spectrum of color, except the emerald shade of blue!

After we finished the hike we crossed into Canada without a hitch. We are now in Calgary, Alberta and headed for Banff National Park!