boating it to Grinnell Lake (in time for the World Cup game)

at our breakfast wifi stop between Yellowstone and Glacier, we realized we needed to make reservations for a boat ride so we could join the ranger-led hike to Grinnell Lake.  luckily, we nabbed four seats on the afternoon boat the last full day we were going to be in the park.  2pm on the sunniest day of our Glacier stay.  the day of the world cup game between the U.S. and Belgium.  which was, coinkydink, at....2pm.  perfect!  said i.  what?!? said two of my fellow travelers.

just as at the Bluebird Cafe, long, long ago in Nashville, lady luck was on our side.  promptly, the first morning we awoke at Glacier, i got us on the wait list (first in line this time!) for the 9am boat the same day as our reservation.  it would still require waiting in a line that morning, hoping for no-shows - but odds were greatly in our favor & i had very little doubt it would all work out.  & it did.  all was well in the world.

in keeping with this theme, we almost immediately saw a MOOSE

walking along the far shore of Swiftcurrent Lake!

everyone in the boat was super-excited.

some were even more excited by the fact that several humans

appeared to be, unwisely, stalking the moose.

we all avidly watched.

moose are odd-looking animals.  but perhaps we all are, in our own ways.

the first boat left the dock at Many Glacier Hotel and deposited us on the south end of Swiftcurrent Lake.  then all fifty (!) of us hoofed it up&down a mini-mountain to the boat dock on Lake Josephine.  this, in turn, brought us to the Grinnell Lake Trail.  if you missed the boat - or wanted to ride back via the boat after a long hike to Grinnell Glacier - you could hop back on it at this point.

at Lake Josephine

the last day we were in Glacier, the temperatures & weather had really changed.  it was summer!  when we arrived, the wind was blowing, the lakes were choppy, and the sky was gray.  the day of our boat ride, the lakes were like glass & reflected the mountains like a mirror.  i am glad we got to see both the wind & the sun at Glacier.

Salamander Glacier, draped horizontally across near the top of the mountain

it was a somewhat raucous hike,

with a number of little children along & some loudly talkative adults.

but we enjoyed it.

we had a few mildly challenging water crossings.  water everywhere was flowing fast & high, including the little streams.  we had to ford one by a) leaping across or b) hopping onto a lone rock in the middle of the stream, then quickly hopping to the bank.  only those with long legs could actually leap across the stream, but luckily i have pretty good balance & the rock worked out just fine.  the larger stream had a suspension bridge.  i did much better crossing it the second time, on the way back.  that thing sways, and the more it sways the more you think oh, my gosh, it's swaying and you start placing your feet farther apart to catch your balance &, of course, it starts swaying even more & you just hope you don't end up in the water.

Joseph wanted me to take a photo of this red beetle.

 right at the edge of Grinnell Lake, there was still some snow.

the boys were thrilled!

 it was quite icy snow, but all the kids on the hike attempted snowball fights....

this is how deep it is - after it's already melted a lot!

Grinnell Lake

photo by Mike

heading back across Swiftcurrent Lake (photo by Mike)

so, yeah, the glaciers are melting.  we heard the same date from all the rangers:  2020.  by 2020, all the glaciers in Glacier National Park will be gone.  these are alpine glaciers, different from the glaciers in Alaska.  glaciers move.  and one of the effects of this movement is that they are pulverizing the stone underneath them.  & this silt travels down, eventually, into the streams and lakes - coloring them that beautiful turquoise, which is not the color of the water but the reflection of light off this glacial silt.  so, i wonder, when will the lakes in Glacier just look like any other mountain lake?  beautiful in their own right...but not a glacial lake.

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yep.  we made it back in time for the World Cup game.  besides (slow) wifi, this lodge also had (hold your breath) a television.  so we snagged a table & had a loooooooong lunch.  (the boys never really remained seated.)  & Joseph had the brilliant idea of using our binoculars to see from the back of the room - starting a little trend when some of the grown men near him said, 'hey, that's a good idea!' and whipped out their binoculars.

as you may know, Belgium won.

which, i guess, was kind of appropriate

in this Swiss chalet.