Glacier National Park Chat

Hopefully you'll see Bonnie.

Jay

With all the rain, I'm pricing materials for an ark.

I got a new appreciation for the wind on the east side. Man, when it blows, it's just relentless. I guess my summer trips have been lucky that it hasn't been that windy, but last year (spring) and this year (fall) had some really windy days. It felt great to get out of the wind and in a camper (quiet).

Jay

Jay w wrote:I got a new appreciation for the wind on the east side. Man, when it blows, it's just relentless. I guess my summer trips have been lucky that it hasn't been that windy, but last year (spring) and this year (fall) had some really windy days. It felt great to get out of the wind and in a camper (quiet).

Jay

Yeah boy, the WIND was blowing Sunday.
You'll see in the bear video below. And I'll have a little more video later.

From the looks of the web cams, the East side is getting hammered again right now.
Here in Kalispell it's blowing hard with intermittent snow showers but no accumulation.
West side cams show maybe an inch around Lake McDonald.

It was weird on Sunday.
LOTs of snow(6-12 inches) between East Glacier and Browning. Same between Browning in St Mary.
However zero snow on the ground in St Mary. And near zero snow on the ground by the GTTS road all the way as far as Jackson Overlook.
This after 2-3 Feet of snow a week before.
My friend Emlon, a seasonal ranger who works in the Logan Pass lot, showed me pics of the St Mary ranger station from last week.
His truck was buried then, not a snowflake a week later.

Emlon said as of last Sunday there were three snow slides between Siyeh Bend and Logan pass blocking the road.
And they haven't finished winterizing Logan pass yet.
May have to bring crews in from the West side since they may get another foot today/tonight.
The strong winds make slides more likely.
He also said they saw a grizzly near Siyeh bend that looked to be in the 500-600lb range.
Emlon said the grizzly bear in the video below is not the big grizzly that has been hanging around this area(Two Dog Flats)
The bear in the video looked to be in the 300-350 range.

The video isn't very good. The bear was about 60 yards away according to Emlon's range finder.
And I was shooting directly into the sun
Hard to hold the camera in the 30-40mph and gusting wind. The last part I shot from inside Jaybird where I could be out of the wind.
The blowing vegetation messed with the auto focus too

Bear video
~5 minutes
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-gMK ... 7-1280.mp4

Shot from window between E.Glacier and Browning


Shot from above St Mary on US 89


Last day St Mary Visitor Center was open.


Surf's up!!


GTTS Mountain from near Sunrift Gorge. Note NO snow on ground.


Burned out remains of old Ranger cabin that burned in the Reynolds Fire.


The images are "captured frames" from the video. I didn't have a long lens with me for still camera.






EDIT ADD:

Here's another 1 minute clip showing how hard the wind was blowing:

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-Gwq ... d-1280.mp4

Pete
Your early spring ,fall and winter pics and videos are always fun to see. Gives everyone an opportunity to see the park at a time most will never experience. Thank you.

A bright and shiny day for you. Wind was incredible! Bear was huge
I enjoy your photos and videos.

That is one big bear! And what an intense wind. It's too bad the fall hiking season was cut short this year with the early snow.

Thanks for sharing, Pete.

Great shots, Pete! Thanks!!

res wrote:Pete
Your early spring ,fall and winter pics and videos are always fun to see. Gives everyone an opportunity to see the park at a time most will never experience. Thank you.

calicotraveler wrote:A bright and shiny day for you. Wind was incredible! Bear was huge
I enjoy your photos and videos.

teapot57 wrote:That is one big bear! And what an intense wind. It's too bad the fall hiking season was cut short this year with the early snow.

Thanks for sharing, Pete.

davidwayne wrote:Great shots, Pete! Thanks!!

Thanks all!
The WIND made life difficult for photography. And I'm not too thrilled about hiking in wind like that.
It makes my eyes water impairing my vision and I can't hear anything.
All that increases the risk of stumbling on a bear, or just stumbling period! LOLOL
There will be other days.

I drove out to Lake McDonald after work to check on my little "friends"...and lo and behold:
Both Bonnie and Clyde were there. And not shy this time.
This will be the 7th winter I've visited with B&C


Clyde says HI


Clyde really is a handsome raven...imo



pete

davidwayne wrote:

Thanks David!

Red buses last run will be next weekend



Nice fall day but the wind came up just as I arrived so no reflection.

So glad to see both B&C showed up to say hello!

calicotraveler wrote:So glad to see both B&C showed up to say hello!

Yup
I was glad to see that both Clyde and Ms. Bonnie made it through the summer madness and are alive and well.
I have a little video of them I'll post later on today.

Here are a couple snaps from late Saturday afternoon. It was too late in the day to try for the summit of Glacier View Peak.
So I just hiked up about a 1/2 mike and maybe 400ft vertically until I found a break in the trees for this shot.
Amazing how much the trees have grown since the ridge burned in 1999? Now you have to hike a long way to get clear of the trees.
The first decent day I can get away, I'll try for the summit.
I talked to three young women coming down as I was going up. They said the summit only has a few inches of snow.
One backpacked her 11month old daughter to the summit and back. 2800ft over about 3 miles.

I took these next two with my 55-200mm zoom lens. This first one was at 55mm(80mm in 35mm format) and that lone dead tree was annoying but couldn't get it out of this panorama.


This panorama is a much better image all around imo. Shot at 100mm(150mm in 35mm format)


The geezer with his gear.
Images above shot from just up the trail where it goes into the trees.


Looking straight down from a cliff edge. I was afraid to sit down for a conventional "boot shoot".
The last time I was on this outcrop it was ALIVE with ticks.


From the outcropping. Camas Road below.


Finished up the day by going out to Lake McDonald for this shot. Wind came up not long after this image.


later

pete

On sad note

Something or someone broke off the distal branch on what I call the "framing tree" on this beach.
Look on extreme right of this image.
It could have been rotted from annual dunking during the spring flood or recent winds.
I don't know, but I doubt it.
I'm just happy I got to use the tree to frame some good images over the last few years.
There sure won't be any more images made using the "framing tree".

pete

PS
Depending on your browser and computer, there are a few images from Saturday before this one.

Might have been a good image if the dumb a$$ photographer had moved his shadow out of the pic.

Only the shadow knows

Chip wrote:Only the shadow knows

Ha! The Shadow? You old enough to remember that on the radio?

I was 4 or 5 years old, so 1952-3, when my older brother and I used to listen our big, old, wood cabinet, vacuum tube radio evenings--before we had TV.
My Dad had strung a "long wire" antenna(~100ft) from out bedroom window to one of the big oak trees in the back yard. We could pick up all kinds of stations.
We listened to shows like The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, Amos and Andy, Sky King, Father Knows Best, among others.
I was too young to really understand what was going on in most of them, but I still liked to listen to them.


pete

Here is one of my images of what that "framing tree" as I call it looked like in the past.