Glacier--Day 3

20090912—Glacier-Day3

I reluctantly pulled myself away from Two Medicine this morning. It was another chilly morning, but the birds were very active. In particular, there was an 1.5 hour squabble among two adult male Belted Kingfishers who seemed to be vying to stake out a ~300 yard long section of the creek leading into Two Medicine Lake. I mistook them first for a bunch of chipmunks because they were making their rattling call constantly. Early during my time watching them, there was a third bird involved, but, without binos at that point, I could not tell if it was a male or female. They were fascinating-- one would land on a perch and rattle and extend his wings, the other nearby chiming in. Then they would exchange places or move to another area and repeat.

Finally I left them to sort it out on their own and headed out of the park to East Glacier and US2 which I followed South and West over Marias Pass to the south tip of the park. At that point there is a feature called Goat Lick Overlook where I pulled off to watch a mountain goat licking the goat lick (which is a steep rock face they use to lick up minerals that accumulate from seeps there).

I re-entered the Park at West Glacier, and got a site at Apgar Campground, after being told that all the other campgrounds short of Logan Pass were closed for the season. After lunch I drove the Going to the Sun Road till Avalanche Creek where signs warned me to go no further with my “long” vehicle. I complied, even though there was no enforcement apparent at that point. I walked the Trail of the Cedars and took in sights of Lake McDonald on the return trip.

The Park was a lot busier here than I experienced in the past few days—whether because of the weekend, or because it is more accessible somehow, I'm not sure. I suspect it is the weekend, since there are kids everywhere. However, it is still easy to go a few hundred yards on a trail and escape the crowds.

Still no cell phone coverage. Others have spotty coverage here, but not me with my AT&T 'service'.