Visit by Kay Holmes from Juneau, Alaska

June, 2006

Click on any image for a bigger view
Contact me if you want the really good image

In June, my friend Kay Holmes came to visit from Juneau, Alaska. It rains 330 days a year up there, so our sunshine was welcome.

We went for a hike out to Kleinschmidt Lake, where we didn't see any Trumpeter Swans, but we did see some cool butterflies around piles of poop, and some wildflowers that we had to look up.


Butterflies on poop	Penstemon

Then we went for a hike up Bear Creek, where we got a real treat -- a boatload of Lady Slippers.


Lady Slipper with Spider	Lady Slippers	Kay	Arnica

Kay is a botanist, and tried to teach me a little more about identifying wildflowers. Unfortunately, I'm not a very good student. We hiked up to the falls, checking out all the wildflowers on the way.


Phacelia	Unknown Wildflower	Western Tanager	Gary on bridge	Kay and Gary

In between hikes, we did some cooking. Kay brought a great recipe for granola, and scones, and I made an Apple, Rhubarb and Raisin pie.


Apple-rhubarb-raisin pie

One day we floated down a section of the Big Blackfoot which I hadn't been down before. It was flat water, but there were four places where the whole river was blocked by trees, so it wasn't quite as harmless as it looked. We didn't see a lot of wildlife, but we did see a nice buck in velvet and an immature bald eagle up close.


Gary napping	Kay	Immature Bald Eagle	Immature Bald Eagle	Osprey	Osprey nest

We took two days and drove up the Rocky Mountain Front to Glacier Park, then over the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Fortunately, the highway department had put out signs, so we knew what we were looking at.


Haystack Butte	DOH

Right across from the Rocky Mountains sign, Kay saw her first badger, but it had been hit by a car... We also spooked up a new fawn who seemed to be following instructions his mother was snorting at him.


Dead Badger	Deer and Fawn

There were wildflowers popping up everywhere, and Kay was eager to identify all of them. When we entered the Blackfeet reservation, we stopped to check out the great sculpture, and repair one of the horse's legs.


Gary and Wildflowers	Blackfeet Reservation Entrance

When we got to Glacier, St. Mary's Lake was as pretty as ever.


		St. Mary's Lake


		St. Mary's Lake


		Kay at Xxx Falls	Gary below box canyon

The box canyon was spectacular.


		Box Canyon


Moss on box canyon walls	Plants on box canyon walls

We hiked up to St. Mary's Falls.


St. Mary Falls		Camp at Rising Sun

We hiked up past Lake Josephine to below Grinnell Glacier. There was a lot of water running everywhere, so at one point we had to wade up the trail, and at another point we went teetering across some bushes.


Below Swift Current Lake	Near Lake Josephine	Bridge above Lake Josephine


Wading the trail	Avoiding water


	Below Grinnell Glacier

On our hike back out, we came across a cow moose with her calf. Fortunately, they weren't too concerned about us.


Beargrass	Moose	Moose Calf	Grouse

The Going-to-the-Sun road had been closed by a landslide for some days, but they opened it up just as we wanted to go over.


East side of Going-to-the-Sun road	West side of Going-to-the-Sun road

Then Kay flew back home to the land of rain and rain forests.

Gary's home page