DAY THREE.
Our third morning started with another sunrise a few strides from our campsite on Lake McDonald. This morning the sky was still clear and had wispy clouds that were bright pink and orange. One of my favorite things about Glacier National Park is that all of the mountain lakes create these incredible reflected views that just increase the grandeur of the landscapes. This is still early in the week before the wind swept in and disturbed the serene calmness of the lakes in the morning and at night. The morning started with such pink clouds and quickly transformed into a less saturated illuminated gold.
As the sun started to rise higher, it started to illuminate the smoke of the Sprague Fire and created these fun starbursts in the camera.
After the sun was up over the mountains, we headed back to the campsite to pack up for the day and head out on our first real hike of the trip! We made our way over to hike to Avalanche Lake by starting at the Trail of the Cedars. This was the first time we embarked into the wilderness of Montana, and with all of our research I have to admit I was super nervous about bears. One of the first things you find out about Glacier National Park is that there is a ton of wildlife, particularly bears, that of which include grizzlies. When we were planning this trip, basically everything online was like, "Yeah you're going to see bears. You need to rent bear spray and be loud by clapping and yelling all of the time so you don't surprise them. That's when they're most likely to attack." Ok, cool. So I'm just going out with my little day pack, mostly full of food and camera gear and this mace on steroids powered to deter bears in an attack. No worries.. Remember in the first blog that we weren't even five minutes into the park when a mama bear and two cubs ran across the road. The only way I made myself less nervous was by researching stats on bears in the park. Literally, millions of people travel through the park every year and bear attacks are extremely uncommon. So as long as we made noise, were aware of our surroundings, and had our bear spray strapped and ready, I felt good to go. Well, better to go.
We started our hike through the cedar trees and came upon Avalanche Creek. There were a bunch of hikers around since this section was right off the Trail of the Cedars, so I snapped a few photos, put my hair up, and we decided to continue on our hike and stop back to get a better look at the end of our hike.
As continued upwards, we kept passing hikers traveling back from Avalanche Lake. Several of them stopped us and exclaimed, "There was a grizzly down there! It was so cool! Hurry down and check it out!". Did I really want to hurry, though? Our first hike and I was already threatened with a grizzly. In all honesty, I really really wanted to see a grizzly. Just safely, from a distance, with a bunch of people around me armed with bear spray as well. So we ventured onward. When we finally got down to the lake, you could see how much the smoke was inhibiting the views. I've seen photos of the mountains that serve as the backdrop on the far side of the lake with water streaming down them, and we could barely see details of the mountains, just that they were in fact there.
My husband, Danny, and I stood on some rocks on the shoreline of the lake looking up the mountain across the way. We stood for a few minutes taking in the sights of our first hike around 50 or so other people. Danny kept watching the mountain side as I snapped other photographs. All of a sudden he spotted something moving through the trees down the mountain side! He kept watching for something like ten minutes, as people started to notice we were watching something they gathered around us on the shoreline, all gathered in discussion about what it could be. Then the once mysterious animal popped it's head up to eat some plants, and there was the grizzly bear, making it's way down the mountain side to the shoreline across the corner of the lake from us. The bear just moseyed on down, eating casually, watching us, minding it's business, and then it decided to go for a little swim. It was amazing to watch. The grizzly got out of the lake, shook off all of the water, and continue to walk to perimeter of the lake in the opposite direction. I didn't get any high quality photos because I don't have a crazy telephoto lens, but I did get to capture the moment to remember and it was incredible just to watch something that terrifying in the perfect scenario; safely, at a distance, surrounded by other people.
Other tiny friends.
After hanging out at Avalanche Lake for awhile, we decided to make our way back the way we came.
We made it back to Avalanche Creek where we had more time to stop and take pictures of the creek and waterfall and all of it's crazy colored moss and turquoise water. We then walked the other half of the Trail of the Cedars back to the car to get ready for sunset.
We then went back to camp to shower and eat. When we got back to the campsite I was so tired I just wanted to eat and hang in a hammock and nap, but Danny had other plans. We walked down to the lake and Danny kept getting in the water more and more. It was chilly by the lake and the glacier water is even colder. I was not feeling it, but by the time Danny had gotten about half way in the water I was convinced and went to put on a bathing suit. I got back down to the lake walked in a little, and then just went for it and dove it! This is not typical for me. I hate being cold and being wet in cold is the worst. But there was something totally magical about it all. Our first full day in the park, we hiked, saw a grizzly bear. We were in my dream place. So I went for it. I swam out towards the mountains to where I couldn't touch the bottom of the lake and just floated out there for some time, taking it all in. This was definitely one of "those moments" for me that I'll remember about this trip forever. Danny had the GoPro with him and even took some pretty cool underwater shots.
I did get to spend a little bit of time in the hammock while Danny was making food before heading off to watch the sunset. We drove over to another side of Lake McDonald called Apgar Village. This is where we stopped when we first got to the park to rent bear spray and browse the little shop. One of the shops is a little ice cream place. Huckleberries are a huge thing in Montana, so we of course had to get some huckleberry ice cream to watch the sunset on the lake.
At some point during the sunset, I decided to test out shooting in HDR. I've never used this feature before, and I think I've concluded that I'm not a huge fan, but it definitely made those images super vibrant. We watched the sunset as the mountains became silhouettes, and then settled in to camp for the night in wait of day four.
