Glacier is our Pot of Gold at End of Rainbow
 It rained all the way to Browning. Duck Lake Road was thick with fog and mist; but when we turned at Babb to make the drive to Many Glacier, the sun came out. By the time we reached the shores of Sherburne Lake, a beautiful rainbow arched over Grinnell Point ending on the road, showing us the Glacier is our pot of gold. And the day only got better as we enjoyed our hike around Swiftcurrent and Josephine Lakes. The glacier lilies as well as the spring beauties are opening and lined our path. We also so a few other flowers such as yellowstone draba and strawberries. For animals, we saw sheep, moose, goats; for birds, bald eagle, mergansers, golden eye, varied thrush, spruce grouse, so we saw all of the biggies except a bear. In fact, we didn't even see tracks. The weather was in the 40s-50s with just a light drizzle, which fizzled out as the day wore on, so many of the gals didn't even put on rain gear. But we were glad to have waterproof boots and gaiters as we were walking on snow about half of the way, which involved some post-holing at times in very wet snow. At least it wasn't very icy. We didn't make it to Grinnell lake, stopping a third of a mile short due to the stream crossing being a bit deeper and swifter than normal. We did find a decent place to cross where the bridge normally is; however, on the other side was a steep snow bank that wouldn't have been fun crossing, especially in water shoes or sandals. Instead, we ate our lunch by the creek with Hidden Falls tumbling behind us. After lunch, we climbed to the top of Hidden Falls, marveling at the canyon it carved, almost like Avalanche Gorge. As for animals, the goats and sheep, especially, put on quite a show. They were very active around the side of Josephine Lake, jumping up and down the rocks and skidding across snow fields. We even saw a herd of sheep come up and over Grinnell Point to join some others further down. The sheep all appeared to be rams; most likely the ewes are preparing to give birth and sticking to lower elevations; yet we didn't see any around the lodge, like we usually do. Instead of encircling both lakes, we backtracked around Josephine, due to much fall down and deep snow on the south-east side of the lake. Then some of us retraced around Swiftcurrent Lake, while others encircled Switfcurrent to end up at the Many Glacier Hotel, at which point the ladies climbed up to the viewing area, despite their legs being a bit worn out from hiking on snow. |
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