My niece Megan asked us earlier on in our trip, which was our favorite park. I am going to have to update my answer. Earlier on it was the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, those magnificent peaks surrounded by lakes and shrouded in magnificent sunsets. It’s tough to judge beauty but I think I’m going to have to now give the edge to Glacier National Park in Montana. It wouldn’t be right to try and do a head to head comparison as those efforts would be fruitless and confusing. Would you compare the Sistine Chapel to the statue of David? Overall though, I hope this description of the park at least points out some of the more breathtaking features it has to offer, and which led me to change my opinion.

Like many of the parks in the Rockies and Northwest, areas of the park, sometimes significant areas, have been destroyed by forest fires. Some of these fires are started by carelessness and others just by lightening strikes. Needless to say, the increasing temperatures as a result of global warming, the drought the west has been experiencing, and the death of many tree’s by disease like the devastation caused by the pine beetle which leave a rich supply of dead, dry wood on the forest floor and above, have created conditions that make these fires more likely. The most recent forest fire to burn through Glacier occurred in 2015. It is easy to see the area’s affected by this fire. For one, all you see in the area in the way of evergreens are very small saplings, just getting their start. They are surrounded by lush meadows of wild flowers, grasses, and small bushes. This is the rejuvenation of the forest undergrowth. Fires are actually a good thing for the forest. The other thing you see are the trunks of the burned trees that are still standing and didn’t burn to the ground. They are a ghostly white. The fire charred their outer bark that eventually fell off and exposed the woody part of the tree below. At that point, it was the sun, wind, and rains that bleached the wood it’s ghostly grey/white color. They stand there, ghosts of the ancestors of the forests that will eventually replace them. Eventually they will decompose and feed the growth of the new generations. The fire restores the forest in this way. Certain pines seed cones require fire in order to open them and deposit the seeds. Certain plants like Bear Grass and Fire Weed and flowering plants whose root systems (Rhizomes), survive the fire underground and then explode with new growth once the tree cover has been removed by the fire. It’s all part of the grand plan!

Similar to the other parks located in the Rockies that we have visited (4^th), it also offered an abundance of amazing flora and fauna. We encountered mountain goats, Columbia Ground Squirrels, Deer, Marmots, Black Bears, birds, and an amazing offering of flowers and insects. No Griz did we see, however, it was pointed out by a Park Ranger that of the 1,000 odd bears that make the park their home, approximately 300 are grizzlies. They take protection from bears up here seriously, and that includes making noise while hiking, keeping all foods and aromatic substances like soap, etc. in a bear proof canister away from your tent, and carrying a can of your trusty bear spray on your belt at all times. Lucky for us and lucky for the bears, an encounter didn’t transpire. Viewing these magnificent creatures from a distance however continues to be one of our top priorities throughout the trip. We did get treated to a real thrill upon leaving the park and that was a viewing of a wolf. It was in the morning of our last day and we were driving on a semi remote stretch of road with meadows and pine forests and as we rounded a bend here comes this black wolf crossing the road about 40 yards in front of us. It stopped about 20 feet into the meadow, looked over at us, and then proceeded to trot up and into the tree line! We were like a couple of giddy and excited children. They are more common to be viewed in Yellowstone and we were disappointed at not getting the chance to spot them there. They aren’t like the elk or deer that have become accustomed to people. They remain shy and elusive so this was truly a treat.

I need to make a footnote to this blog entry because I am writing it almost a month after the visit to Glacier. I took notes on our stay there, which will serve as the kindling for this fire; however, it’s not the same as writing it when the experience is fresh. I’ll have to fill in the missing blanks here from a distance and I hope I can do this magnificent park justice. The delay is the result of finding too little time to write when there is so much going on. Regardless, I’ll do my best to recapture the impact this park had on us here.

The impact of this park can be accounted for in two of the hikes that we did, which are excellent examples of what the park has to offer. Both of the hikes had trailheads that started out of the Many Glacier campground area, located in the northeast corner of the park. The first was a 12 mile round trip hike up to the Grinnel Glacier. It started alongside a beautiful lake and proceeded to climb up from that point through forests, sub-alpine ecosystems and finally up into alpine ecosystems. Along the way, we were treated to an amazing array of wild flowers that seemed to be bursting with color and at their peak of blooms. They carpeted almost every inch of open space and meadow. Even at the highest altitudes, we were accompanied by dozens of colorful butterflies, bumble bee’s, honey bee’s, flies, tiny spiders, chipmunks, squirrels, birds, and marmots. We had encountered mountain goats in other parks who spent great amounts of time licking rocks in order to get the much needed minerals into their diet that the sparse alpine environment didn’t offer through plants, but, here was the first time that we saw this same behavior with a marmot. The path up took us to a point along a steep cliff where a waterfall came down from above and right over the path. We came upon a rather large marmot, busy licking the rocks and seemingly oblivious to us as we stopped to observe him and then pass on. There was a series of three lakes that were below us as we ascended the trail and as the sun rose over the eastern ridges of the mountains to our left, it brought about the reflection of the surrounding peaks in the lakes below. As the sun grew higher in the sky, the images reflected in the lakes became as clear as a postcard, only occasionally obscured when a lone cloud happened to pass in front of the sun. Upon reaching Grinnel Glacier, we were treated to a magnificent view of the valley below through which we had just climbed. There below us were the beautiful blue/green waters of the three lakes, the second of which was in a subalpine ecosystem and the third of which was an alpine lake. The sky was a bright blue and the suns rays were warming our faces and all that surrounded us. At the top of the trail there was a final steep climb across and up a snowfield that took one to a beautiful waterfall, crashing down off a high cliff, and then over a second step of stone, and into a stream that ultimately fed the lakes below. It was all so breathtaking. We stopped here for lunch to soak in the view for as long as we could. P, B, and J’s never tasted so good! We enjoyed the same vistas a second time on our way down and so spectacular were they, that we felt “high”, and fortunate, when we finally made it to the parking lot, our RV, and Jackson who was patiently waiting for us.

Our second hike out of the Many Glacier area was the following day and was a 10 mile hike that would take us to what was called Iceberg Lake. As with most hikes, we got an early start in order to avoid trail traffic and to get back to the RV and Jackson before the afternoon sun made it too hot. Prior to today, the previous days hike to Grinnel Glacier became the “can you top this” hike of the trip, but today’s hike to Iceberg Lake was about to give it an even run for its money. Both of these hikes took us up trails that led up out of valleys and ultimately to the alpine areas above them. Both valleys were surrounded by ridges of vertical granite that stood like sentinels over the beauty below. The ridges stood straight and firm against the blue sky, powerful and stoic like the walls of a mighty fortress. We were again treated to un-immaginal beauty as the trail took us past the tree line and into expansive alpine meadows exploding with a blanket of color provided by alpine wild flowers that took our breath away. No description can I provide here that can capture its beauty, or could feed ones imagination to recreate its wonder without seeing it in person. Alpine lakes, granite sentinels, a sea of blue above, waterfalls, all surrounding expansive meadows of purples, whites, yellows, pinks, blues, and…………. Its beauty was mesmerizing. Like the sirens of Ulysses, I should be tied to the trunk of a ponderosa pine here and allow the magnetism of this visual masterpiece have its way with my mind and my soul, lest I stay here all day until the night falls, spell bound by the grace that was before us. Is this too great a height of comparison to attest to the vision before us? I think not, but I will defer to you, when you too have had the good fortune to gaze upon it firsthand as well. But even then, if it’s vision doesn’t carry you away like it did mine, I will have to attribute it to a lack of sun, or something personal that has occupied your mind in place of your surroundings, or the pitiful misfortune of being blind!

When we reached the “top”, our physical expenditure was again rewarded with a magnificent visual splendor that our imaginations could not predict. Here was a crystal blue, alpine lake surrounded by those granite guardians that stood guard over the valley, with waterfalls cascading down the cliffs and filling this pure, crystal pool in which were a hundred or more floating chunks of ice. Some were small, and some the size of small trucks, and each had a portion above and a portion below the icy blue water line, the submerged portion easily seen through the clear pool in which they floated. Along the shoreline of this amazing vista, we again stopped for lunch and continued to devour the splendor before us. Two days in a row now we have been witness to nature at her finest, captivated by its beauty, its expanse, and its power. We feel privileged and blessed. I hope that everyone can get here at one point. I hope that every child can get here so that the seeds of experiencing nature can be planted early and they become natures protectors as adults. And if they don’t agree with me that Glacier was the most amazing of the National Parks, then go ahead and protect that one too.

I can’t criticize those who choose to exercise through the means of a gym membership. But I would have to say that a treadmill or barbell has no legs to stand on when compared to a hike through nature that burnishes not only your muscles, but your spirit and soul as well. To hike for 5 hours with the sun on your face, gentle breezes providing refreshment as well as carrying the fragrance of pine forests and wild flowers, the surprise of coming upon all variety of small/large mammals, exotic birds, butterflies, and of course the constant stimulation of the overall beauty of nature that can only be experienced in its totality by being out in it. Yes, our hamstrings and our quads burned, yes, we sweat and replaced our lost fluids by guzzling water, but, at the end of the day, it wasn’t our muscles that received the greatest growth, it was our souls. Our spirits soared, we conversed for hours about what we had seen, and our tightening muscles and burned calories were but an afterthought, so insignificant to the greater gain. These hikes are so much more.

There are 25 glaciers remaining in this national park, and there were upwards of 150 back in the 1800’s. They are disappearing, the victims of global warming. It is hard to imagine global warming happening at this pace that doesn’t have the fingerprints of human activity all over it. The normal cycles of global warming, with the exception of catastrophes like asteroids hitting the planet was spread out over thousands of years. Our warming trend is less than 200 years. It is estimated that at the current rate of melting, the remaining glaciers will all be gone in approximately 10 years. The detrimental effects of their disappearance are already being seen. As the temperatures rise, the tree line of the forest is moving further up the mountain, and taking over the alpine ecosystems. In essence, it is replacing these ecosystems and the plants, flowers, animals, insects, birds, etc. that make this alpine environment their home, and depend on it for their survival. As the glaciers disappear, the melting of ice during the summer months will slow and then end, threatening the streams and the rivers and lakes at the lower elevation and all the life that depends on them. The lower elevations will then be prone to severe droughts. The end of this melting run-off will threaten the insect larvae that live on the rocks in the streams and are food for fish, birds, amphibians, etc. As the creeks dry up the plants that depend on this source of water and live along the banks and the wetlands the streams create, will dye off and the small and large mammals that depend on those plants will be threatened as well. It is the domino effect to a devastating degree. If there is a chance to prevent this, then how could any person of sound mind refuse to take action? Where are the voices that are necessary to do what we can, while we can, to protect these amazing places that nature provides us? How many voices would be heard if we were to lose the Mona Lisa in 10 years? How about the Sistine Chapel? The statue of David? The contents of the Museum of Modern Art? The Louvre? If there were a chance to save this trove of mans most inspiring renderings from its potential loss, would not the world unite in its defense? Why then can so many stand by and let the greatest works of God disappear? Anyone who has spent any time in these parks, and for that matter, any of Mother Natures many locations from backyards to State Parks, etc., has been touched by her spirit. Anyone who has swam in an unspoiled River. Walked a trail through a forest with maybe only the sound of their feet to disturb it. Sat upon a mountain peak and watched as the sun dropped low and pulled the shrouds of night across miles of forests. Has sat in a meadow of wildflowers and dreamt to the sound of bee’s and the dance of butterflies. Listened to the sound of leaves and the sway of trees as a soft breeze passed through them. Watched as an eagle circled down to the surface of a lake and effortlessly snatched out a fish to bring back to its fledglings. These are the owners of the voices we need to hear. Introduce children to these wonders early in their years, as they will be maybe the last generation that can save them. Nature is a powerful elixir and once exposed to it, it weaves itself into your memory and your soul. It helps us to be human. Take them on the trail, to a river, to a peak, and to the ocean, and let them soak it in. That is what is needed, for how tragic it would be, for this generation to utter the words, “I remember when…”, to a child of theirs who will never be able to know.