Our first meander on the East
side of the Park was from Many Glacier up into the mountains to “Iceberg Lake”.
I’m sure we hadn’t made it to the Arctic Circle, but we did climb for a long
time, and we found a lake with icebergs floating in it. A magnificent lake in a
hanging basin, they are all so breath-taking. We were unlucky to miss seeing a
moose on this walk as people we passed on the track said keep your eyes peeled,
there is a moose grazing just below the track 400 yards along there. But no
matter how much peeling we did no mooses were sighted.
From Many Glacier we drove
south to East Glacier through magnificent country again. We settled in East
Glacier for two nights so that we could spend a day in the Two Medicine area.
This was more big country but a few less visitors… still too many, but less than
other places. We boated to the head of Two Medicine Lake in a vintage motor
boat carrying 50 people. We had wonderful commentary on the way, spotted a
couple of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep high up on a mountain and just as we
pulled in to the jetty at the head of the lake there was a young cow moose, 20
metres away, walking slowly along the lake edge. I hurriedly got the camera
out, bit tricky to set up out the side window of our somewhat cramped boat, but
I got in good position and excitedly snapped off three unbelievable live moose
photos. The moose climbed into the undergrowth and was gone immediately. I
reviewed my unbelievable photos to find that I had three excellent photos of
the inside of the lens cap! Darn, hate it when that happens…several notes to
self!. Don’t get over-excited being one of them.
We disembarked and after a
quick scan of the surrounding area realised that moose can be very elusive. We
headed off on our planned 9km out and back hike up to No Name Lake. (There
appears to be too many lakes and they have run out of names!) Once again the
mountains soar up from the lake edge in a bowl formation with snow still
trapped in the shaded areas.
The past couple of days we
have been driving, first back to Kallispell then south along Flathead Lake down
to Seeley Lake. Diana was again driving on a very scenic route when I noted a
sign the said “Animals Crossings, Take Care”. I was still reading the sign when
all breaking systems were deployed as a fawn was standing in the middle of the
road! It’s 32 degrees and not the right place for wild animals to be. Goodness
knows where the hind was but I’m sure the fawn was severely reprimanded!
Tonight we are in Seeley Lake,
a nondescript little village, a bit like Kuratau on the shores of Lake Taupo.
Tomorrow we will edge closer to Yellowstone National Park and prepare our
expedition once in Gardiner.
