Saturday, August 14, 2021

Glacier National Park - Day Four: Baring, St. Mary, and Virginia Falls, Fish Creek Camp

 Plan A was to wake up early and try to get a parking spot at Logan Pass to hike Hidden Lake. We were successful, but the fog was thick. We dozed in the car for an hour hoping it would lift, but it never did. So, Plan B was to do the waterfall trail at the west end of St. Mary Lake. We got to see three named falls and numerous others on the six mile hike. It was truly a rewarding and enjoyable hike with the kids who were really into it and didn't even complain about the length! Baring Falls was the first one we came to.






We also got to a spot where the trail dips down to the turquoise waters of St. Mary Lake.






St. Mary Falls was number two. The plunge of it was powerful and the green, swirling pools below were mesmerizing. It was really interesting to see it contrasted the with almost pink  color of the rocks in that gorge.






This one was unnamed but the horizontal stacked rock made for lots of ledges and invited climbing.







Finally Virginia Falls wrapped up the hike. It was an impressive drop and at the bottom it was possible to walk on a flat ledge area to get pretty near the base of the falls.














St. Mary Falls on the way out.







We were now at the midway point of our trip and moved from hotels to camping at Fish Creek campground on the northwest corner of Lake McDonald. I rigged up a tarp in case of rain, but luckily it had stopped! We took it easy that evening, explore the campground, skipped rocks at the lake, and were happy to have everything set up. 






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