DAY EIGHT.
Sadly this was our last full day in Glacier National Park. We did sunrise in our favorite spot on Pray Lake right on the campground at Two Medicine. At the beginning of sunrise I found a stick that was shaped just like Sinopah Mountain! I was pretty excited about that.
The sunrise this morning was softer than some of the others had been. No clouds, just soft colors that faded into each other from the horizon line. The sun on the mountains was my favorite this morning. It was as vibrant as the previous morning, but it was super pink which made everything have this beautiful purple hue.
Danny was super tired and very ridiculous.
The last little bit of the sunrise.
Today we planned on driving the entirety of the Going to the Sun Road again and just stopping wherever we wanted to to give our feet a rest before the last hike the next day. During the whole trip we basically had to live out of a car. The first day that we arrived we drove to a Walmart to stock up on food for the week. Shopping for this trip required some planning. We couldn't get anything that needed refrigerated and had to make sure that we didn't buy too much because we would have to leave it behind or pack it in our already full bags. And if we bought too little, then we'd have to make a significant drive just to buy more food. Our eating for the last couple of days was solely determined on what we needed to get rid of and what little we could take with us. I dreamt of having camp pancakes before the trip, so the only pancake mix we could fix that said "just at water" was funfetti gluten free pancake mix, and it happened to be on sale! The funfetti part made it even more fun, but pancakes are not easy to make when you're only using equipment that you can go backpacking with and you flew from Pennsylvania, to Canada, to Montana with. Danny did a great job though! Oh, and of course the plates we brought from home were Star Wars related.
We cleaned up and packed up after some yummy pancakes and coffee and started are journey on Going to the Sun Road. Before we even got out of the campground, we spotted a mama sheep and her baby! We let them cross the road and slowly continued towards the main road. Once we got out of the camp ground there was a whole mini herd of sheep and their little babies! They ran right across the road in front of cars! But they made it safely across into an open field. We stopped the car so I could get out and take pictures of them from a safe distance. As a side note, it's actually illegal to be within certain distances of wildlife in the park for your safety and theirs. I love taking pictures and will get up early, be uncomfortable, stand in the cold, and so on, but it's not worth being reckless and endangering yourself or the wildlife. Respect that you're in their home and enjoy them from a distance. But look at how cute these guys are!
Once the sheep were safely on their way, we continued on ours through the whole park! The smoke from the wildfire had changed so many views. Our ride through the park didn't look the same as it did the first day we arrived even though we were looking at the same locations. Some parts of the drive, the roads were covered with so much smoke. We almost waited until the next and actual last day of the trip to drive Going to the Sun Road one last time, but it's a good thing we didn't. The next day the road was closed and a good number of the lodges, hotels, and campgrounds were evacuated due to the wildfire. To witness the wildfire and parts of how it affected the park was a bit surreal. It's crazy to think that things like this happen naturally, like the Sprague Fire in particular was started by lightning strikes. There's a certain sadness watching the fire burn or even seeing the places that were burned in the past, knowing the destruction it causes to the landscape and the wildlife in the park. It even burned down the historic Sperry Chalet earlier in the week.
However, when I got back from this trip I did a lot of research on wildfires and why there isn't always human intervention. The interesting thing is that these types of environments actually need the presence of wildfires from time to time to continue the life cycle. The forests burn, and other plants who can only thrive after a fire grow up. Trees and other vegetation begin to burst forth from the ground, slowly but surely, one day to match other areas of the park that have regrown. There's hope in the death. But hope. Sometimes I think it was unfortunate that there were wildfires inhibiting us from seeing certain areas of the park to their fullest potential, but in reality in taught me something bigger. This whole trip did. It changed my perspective on things and opened my eyes to things I've never seen before. Jumping forward, this whole beauty in death concept is the inspiration for my most recent tattoo. I got a western larch tree on my right forearm to remember the basic concept of, "but, hope" inspired by this amazing place. Anyways, here are some shots from our drive! Including the obligatory photo of us in front of the Glacier National Park sign (one of them at least, thanks to self timers!).
After just enjoying our last drive through the whole park we stopped near our campground to do a mini walk to Running Eagle Falls. They're also called the Trick Falls because sometimes the water isn't running over the top of the rocky hillside, it just appears to be coming out of nowhere in the middle. This is how we got to see it. The history of the falls is also really interesting. The Two Medicine area is considered the most sacred by certain Indian tribes and still is the most rooted in that culture and it doesn't go unnoticed when you're there. Running Eagle Falls got it's name because of the story of a woman from the Blackfoot tribe named Pitamakan, meaning Running Eagle. She was a brave warrior woman who didn't adhere to the expectations of her tribe. She took care of her family, fought wars with the men, and became highly regarded within her tribe and beyond. You can read a lengthy and intriguing explanation of her here. These falls were named in her honor because it is believed that in the cave of the falls is where Pitamakan received visions from the spiritual world. I have to say that I don't typically have a huge interest in waterfalls, but this one's unique appearance and story had me hooked.
After the falls we made our way back to Two Medicine Lake for our last sunset and dinner by the water. Of course we had to also get our last fix of mountain berry frozen yogurt, too. This was the smokiest and windiest sunset of them all. The way the smoke distorts the sun and the color coming through it was wild.
While I was taking pictures Danny made a little thing in the rocks that said "GNP 17", but he was sad that you couldn't really see it sitting with all of the other rocks. So he had the grand idea of getting a cup and retrieving cold water from the lake to make the rocks darker. He succeeded in making it more visible, for the most part.
One last look at our last sunset in Glacier National Park, for now.
