What would happen if you woke up early in the morning (and I mean it... like 5am early), threw a couple of eggs on the pan, got a cup of coffee and drove towards the mountains? I tell you what happens if you do that - you have a chance to be first to see something breathtakingly nice ;)
So, I did what I just described and found myself at the parking lot
at the St Mary's Glacier trailhead where only two cars were parked at
this time. Exactly what I wanted - to be not in the crowd but all by
myself (ok, you got me, almost by myself).
The
trail started rough. It doesn't look this way in the pictures, but the
trail is steep and the rocks are huge. Not too bad, but... not an easy
hike for sure.
Something like 20 minutes later I gained close to 400 feet of elevation and was ready to see why I was there...
A few more steps and...
...and my heart that was beating hard because of walking uphill now beat even harder because of the absolutely breathtaking view at the lake.
Everything there was different... The calm water and pine trees that looked like fairy tail characters.
The water wasn't really steel, but still it was mirror-like and looking at
the lake I could see everything twice - the top half just normal
landscape and the bottom was a mirrored picture of the top.
Aaaamaaaaziiiing...
I walked around the lake to take a look from the other side and...
again... breathtaking... And reflections were... I have no words to
describe it...
I stayed there for a while and decided to go and see the glacier so I passed a small meadow covered by yellow flowers and soon was at the bottom of the huge thong of snow and ice. And, again, the picture cannot give you an impression of how huge this snowy slope was... I'd say that - look at the picture and imagine triple of what you can see there.
A few more minutes and I could see the lake from the top. Looked different and felt different too.
There was a hiker going down the slope and...
...right she was so small compared to the glacier.
And, honestly, I did it again. I allowed to be tricked by mountains even though I knew the trick. I know it is hard to say how far you need to go when you stay at the bottom of a trail (or glacier in my case). And I calculated it would be twice what I see so I decided to go... When I climbed four times I expected to reach the summit and I found myself still in the middle of the climb, I gave up and turned back. Maybe next time... not today ;)
When I was back I found the melting crack where the creek was
running towards the lake and in a few minutes I was down to the lake
walking between ponderosa pines...
By the way, can you see how the trees are leaning to the left? I
guess this is because of the winds blowing from the East... or from the
West? Not sure the they resist the wind or give up.
20 more minutes and I was down to the parking lot. And, oh man, it
was packed (and I know that, because the crowd was climbing up when I
was climbing down). So I said next time I would wake up, probably, even
earlier when I go somewhere else ;)
Pictures were taken on June 20, 2022.
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