Sunrise at Swiftcurrent Lake, known as the Many Glacier region. The Many Glacier Hotel is on the left.
Road trip! We traveled from St. Paul, Minnesota to Glacier National Park in Montana, visiting the east side, west side, and Canadian sections of the park.
It was a grand trip. Glacier is drop-dead gorgeous. We learned so much about geology, geography, politics, history, etc. Here are the highlights:
- The glaciers are melting. They are 90% gone and are expected to be completely gone in 2020. This won’t stop the average snowfall of 80 feet every winter.
- From Fargo, North Dakota to the east side of Glacier – that’s 880 miles – the land is absolutely flat except for a blip where the badlands are.
- Down the street from us in St. Paul is the James J. Hill mansion. James J. Hill and his son, Louis, headed up the Great Northern Railway. The luxurious mansion in St. Paul was apparently financed by breaking the Blackfeet Indians so the railroad could go through Glacier. Breaking the Indians meant starving them (killing all the bison) and giving them small pox infected blankets. Way to go, James J. Hill. Hope you enjoyed your silk wallpaper and marble tubs before landing permanently in hell.
- The Going to the Sun Road that runs through Glacier is breathtakingly beautiful but the cliffs and drop-offs are absolutely frightening!
I was photographing moving water, sunsets, and what might appear to be static landscapes. But, things change constantly. Moving water hits obstacles that create patterns in the water that never repeat. Wind moves and alters cloud formations. As the sun rises or sets the angle and intensity of the light affects color, shadows, saturation, and detail, minute by minute. Every snap of the camera captures a moment that is unrepeatable.
The Avalanche Gorge is on the trail up to Avalanche Lake.
Copper sulfate and other minerals in the rocks slip off into the water and turn it amazing shades of blue. That blue is not Photoshopped.
This is the Swiftcurrent River downstream from Swiftcurrent Lake.
Going to the Sun Road, storm moving through.
Late June, this is the snow depth in Logan Pass. All summer long it melts, creating weepy mountains. Notice my nice husband carrying my tripod!
One of many weeping waterfalls along the Going to the Sun Road.
Sunrise on Mt. Wilbur in Many Glacier. Mr. Ed named it.
Virginia Falls falls 35 feet, kicking up clouds of mist at the bottom. I had just set up a shot when a gust of wind blew spray straight into my lens. A chance operation indeed! And, yes, I did have to clean the lens and have the camera sensor cleaned when I got back home.
Sunset at Lake MacDonald, on the west side.
The beginning of the trip was cold and blustery as a storm moved out of the area. Then we had clear skies and 80 degrees until a heat wave landed towards the end of our stay. The heat created an awful haze and I gave up taking anymore photos. We loved Waterton Lakes in the Canadian section of Glacier, but there are no photos. Guess we’ll have to go back!
Copyright 2013 Alice Gebura All Rights Reserved
GORGEOUS! I love Glacier Park. = )
Spectacular, Alice. These images make me eager to take our trip to The Flume. Maybe fall will be best will its brilliant colors.
Awesome! It’s Alice Gebura picture perfect! You captured the enormity of the space and mountains, the almost mystical (perhaps wedding veil-like) path of a river through the gorge, the stillness of nature and the movement of air screwing up a lens! All so beautiful – what an opportunity for a fantastically well done “chance”.
I had polarizer and neutral density filters screwed onto the lens so the lens was well protected actually.