Snow and waterfalls

After a great dinner and s'mores last night, we got up this morning to drive the Going-To-The-Sun Road en route to our hike. The GTSR is the main drag through the park, but it was closed due to snow until today. Today is the first day this season that the GTSR is open, and the lines of cars were plentiful (the road construction due to the spring thaw didn't help matters much either). There were plenty of beautiful waterfalls and lots of snowpack to keep us cool on the mountain pass.

The Hidden Lake trail was a bust. It was beautiful, but very snowy, and we only did about 1/4 of the trail out before we decided to bail and eat lunch. The walking was tough indeed. Lunch was on a rocky oasis in the middle of a snowfield, and there was plenty of wildlife to see and shoot (with a camera, natch).

After lunch, we headed to St. Mary's falls, a shortish hike that led us to a number of beautiful waterfalls. The hike was pretty easy, and there were some beautiful photography spots along the way.

Going back to the house took a long time. Even though GTSR is open, there's still a lot of construction. Took us an hour just to get through the construction. I slept. C drove. Thanks, C!

Dinner was at the Lake McDonald Lodge, one of the oldest structures in the park. The lodge itself was built in 1913/4, and it's beautiful! Rustic, dark, with high ceilings and lots of dead animals on the wall.