It's been fairly windy, no RV in the campground has been able to deploy its awning for over two days - not that there has been any sun to shade. A High Wind Warning has been issued from midnight tonight to early Monday morning with sustained winds of 35 to 45 mph and gusts near 70 mph. I guess it's a good thing that there are no trees in the campground to fall on any RVs.
Hiking has been interesting for the past couple of days. The low-lying valleys are, if not sunny, at least bright, but the higher elevations are cloud shrouded and forbidding. Never-the-less, today we hiked Jake's #4 trail to Iceberg Lake, with the trailhead, again, at the Many Glaciers area of the Park. It takes us about 30 minutes to drive from the campground to the trailhead.
At the beginning of the trail; some brilliant fall color.
The early part of the trail passes through meadows and into forests. Here is a "filtered" view of Ptarmigan Falls, about half way up the trail to Iceberg Lake.
The trail crosses the top of the falls pictured above and from the bridge this falls is up above.
When we were on the west side of the park we commented that we never saw any deer. Here, on the east side, we have seen un-afraid deer on practically every trail.
The rounded cirque under the clouds is our destination.
Outlet creek and falls from Iceberg Lake as we approach...
the glacial citrque that holds the lake.
As we entered the basin we came across pools of water leading up to...
Iceberg Lake. This is the view from our lunch spot. When we first started eating the clouds obscured the jagged tops of the 3,000 foot cliffs surrounding the lake.
The permanent snowfields at the head of the lake are remnants of a glacier that, until recently, occupied the basin. There were no icebergs in the lake; I guess the warmth of summer broke them up. Today it was pretty cold, maybe in the 40s, and very windy and wild - to match the mountain.
As we began to leave the cirque we could see the sun shining on the valley below.
A look-back at the cliffs and Iceberg Peak.
Mount Wilbur, known to the Blackfeet as "Heavy Shield Mountain," rises across the valley to the south.
Back in the valley, with Grinnell Point in the middle of the picture.
Here's a selfie from yesterday, at Redrock Falls.
Hike statistics:
Length - 9.9 miles
Elevation gain - 1,400 feet (194 floors on the Fitbit)
Duration - 5 hours
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