It's zero degrees in West Glacier today, a good day to stay inside and catch up on some photos.
Last summer was the 2nd year that GNP instituted their "entry ticket reservation system" for park entry. In addition to paying for a park pass, each vehicle needed an entry ticket for that day in order to enter the park between the hours of 6am and 4pm. Since we are 5 minutes from the entrance, our way around that is to get up early and enter before 6am (though the "local" word was that due to staffing issues that gate was not manned until 7am!). In addition to that, road construction closed Sun road on the west side between 10pm and 6am, so there was no access up the road until 6am.
August 14 I got up early and headed in. Though I've climbed Mt. Oberlin a few times, I've only gone up scree trail and had never been on the saddle between Oberlin and Clements. This day was a short hike up to the saddle. As a side note, the park "discourages" the scree trail due to erosion, but does not close that access. Also, the rules for hiking in the park are generally you may hike anywhere unless there are signs that say you cannot. Most of Logan Pass is closed to off trail hiking since it is an extremely high traffic area of people which would trample the fragile ecosystem. The trail to Mt. Oberlin is neither a park maintained trail, nor is it closed off for hiking -- it's one of those places that mostly only locals know about.
On the drive up I stopped at the Loop to catch the moonset/sunrise on Heaven's Peak. It's warm already; another brilliant day trapped in paradise.
Up at Logan Pass the morning sun on Mt. Clements. There are already people heading up the Hidden Lake trail, which has signs along the trail that off trail hiking is illegal.
I'm heading up the trail to the saddle between Clements on the left and Oberlin on the right. Could not have picked better weather
Looking back the sun is creeping over Going-To-The-Sun Mountain
The trail heads up to the moon, just past the stunning wildflowers
It's mid August, and by Labor Day it may be snowing at this elevation. These snowfields are not melting out this year.
The trail is actually still snow covered for a small portion
Sun is up and it is warming up fast.
On the saddle, the alternate way up Mt. Oberlin is the ridge line. I have yet to do that. I have heard there is a 2 foot "leap of faith" gap over a steep dropoff, and I'd rather not do that alone!
The other side of the saddle is the bowl that melts and feeds Bird Woman Falls (560 foot waterfall) which is visible from Sun road.
The view back of Logan Pass, with my namesake Heavy Runner Mountain and Mt. Reynolds.
