Glacier National Park 2014

When Glacier National Park was established in 1910, there were 150 glaciers within the park's one million acres in northwestern Montana.  As of summer 2014, there are only 25.  Rangers are not concerned that the glaciers are melting but they are alarmed by the rate at which they are disappearing.  They predict that all of the glaciers will be gone from the park by 2020 (only 6 years from now), which is why I am glad I went to the park while it is still possible to see a few of its chilly namesakes, such as the Jackson Glacier.

This was a fairly rugged trip, involving 2 weeks of tent camping and about 75 miles of hiking and backcountry backpacking.  Such efforts were greatly rewarded.  Here's an early morning view to the east of the Continental Divide at Gunsight Pass after a 3-mile hike rising 1,600-feet from Gunsight Lake.

The trail was quite narrow and steep in some places, since it is not much more than a goat trail.  Mountain Goats are king at the "Crown of the Continent," and one learns to give them room on the trail. 

     

A ranger-led hike to the Grinnell Glacier was another highlight.  In this picture, you can see three glaciers: Gem Glacier (atop the ridge to the left shrouded by the cloud), Salamander Glacier (cradled in the mountain to the right), and Grinnell Glacier (laying along the shore of Upper Grinnell Lake).  Salamander used to be joined with Grinnell, but melting has created two separate glaciers for now. 



 

One of the animals I have wanted to see all my life is Bighorn Sheep.  I have seen flocks of white Dall's Sheep in Alaska, but finally at Glacier a little boy's dream came true on the hike up to the Grinnell Glacier.  Climate change is shrinking alpine meadow habitat for wild sheep.

 

The hike returning to the Many Glacier Valley was breathtaking but bittersweet.  The source of the beautiful waterfall and milky blue waters of Grinnell Lake is meltwater from the glaciers.

Glacier is one of the last places in the U.S. to see wild Grizzly Bears.  Loud hiking and smart food storage prevented me from seeing any Grizzlies on this trip (which is just fine, thank you). 

A day hike to the Ptarmigan Pass brings you to a tunnel that was blasted through the rock in 1931. 



If you go through the tunnel, there is a gorgeous view of Elizabeth Lake to the west. 

Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, is a sister park to Glacier.  The staff at the historic Prince of Wales Hotel serves high tea in the afternoon, and it comes with a majestic view. 

Sleeping Bear Dunes 2014

Five national parks are situated on the shores of the Great Lakes (Pictured Rocks, Apostle Islands, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Indiana Dunes, and Isle Royale), and this week I completed the set with a visit to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  Only Indiana Dunes is closer to my home, yet this was the last park in the Great Lakes region that I visited.  I was not disappointed.

As a birder, I was targeting two endangered species that can be found reliably in Michigan: Kirtland's Warbler (a life bird) and Piping Plover.  The Kirtland's Warbler depends on vast tracts of young jack pine forests for nesting habitat.  Such habitat was naturally occurring before fire suppression became commonplace, but now 150,000 acres of public land are actively managed for Kirtland's Warblers.  They weigh as much as two quarters and and a penny, but they can sing louder than a gull.  It was such a joy to take one of the Michigan Audubon tours to see this handsome songbird.

The other target bird was Piping Plover, a species which is even rarer than Kirtland's Warbler in the Great  Lakes.  As it turns out, half of the Great Lakes population uses Sleeping Bear Dunes as breeding habitat.  I met a couple of bird monitors at South Manitou Island who were there to count them, but when Joe and I paddled to Gull Point where they are reported to nest on South Manitou, we didn't see any from the water.  The Point is "off limits" to limit disturbance to breeding plovers.  At the mouth of the Platte River on the mainland, however, there was a pair that we saw right away.  Apart from their "piping" calls, they were not easy to track, since Piping Plovers blend in with the beach very well.  Three fluffy chicks had just hatched and were eager to explore the stony beach.

We spent two nights and three days on South Manitou Island, only accessible by ferry.  The mosquitoes were unrelenting, worse than any other place I have been.  It rained every day (which bolstered the blood-sucker population, I presume), but when the sun came out, the scene was glorious. 

One afternoon we hiked to an old growth cedar forest and a perched sand dune.  My second longest day of hiking ever (over 13 miles), it was well worth the effort.  In the ancient forest, we found Small Yellow Ladies Slippers, and in the perched sand dunes, we found an endless carpet of lilies and coreposis.  The trail led us through a beautiful beech-maple forest laced with ferns.  Once we climbed to the dunes, it was like passing from black-and-white to technicolor.

Unpredictable as Lake Michigan can be, we were able to paddle leisurely around half of South Manitou Island, with special views of the foggy mainland, a Bald Eagle, a cormorant rookery, a pair of Mute Swans, and a shipwreck.