Eclipse Excitement!

Yes, we got to see the eclipse!

Fortunately the young-uns keen to make the trek out-voted those of us who foresaw many problems in getting to totality. Some of these issues materialized, some didn't, but nothing catastrophic resulted.

I don't have any pictures of the phenomenon itself; the equipment needed to do it justice is pretty far above my little camera's pay grade. But I can tell you about how we got to see it and what fun it was to experience something so unique with our whole little family.

The idea was that we were just too close to the totality band, at our place in Colorado, not to take the chance. A 3-hour car trip Sunday got us even closer, to Ft. Collins, almost to the Wyoming border, where we all had friends we wanted to visit anyway, and who graciously put us up for two nights. Ft. Collins got to see practically 99% of totality, which our friends said was very cool. But we wanted more.

So we got up really early Monday morning and headed north. Our first choice location was Guernsey State Park in Wyoming, lying smack dab in the middle of the totality band. And our son-in-law's brother was already there, camping out, so we even had a personal connection at the place.

The drive from Ft. Collins to Guernsey normally would take about two hours, and it took us 3. Not too bad, considering what we had feared in terms of I-25 traffic. We had studied maps and scoped out secondary roads for contingency plans, but we didn't end up needing them. There was also a chance that the park would be full, but we were lucky there, too. A phalanx of park workers/volunteers were happy to take our $6 per car (what a bargain!) and probably make their entire annual budget that morning.

They had viewing areas set up throughout the pleasant scenery of the park, but we opted to try and find the brother and were successful.That's his camping trailer in the background here:

Our early start meant we had some time to kill before the eclipse even began. So we were able to explore and enjoy some of the park's features, including this nice lake...

Here's a look at some of our fellow eclipse-seers camped out along the lakeshore...

It was a great place to be. In addition to the nice lake, the amenities included restrooms (although Nix brought her own facilities):

We'd come prepared with snacks, chairs, and cameras...

...and even some scientific literature to help our appreciation and understanding of the event...

Spirits were high as the eclipse got underway...

...and it was fun to check on its progress as it got cooler and cooler, the sun getting more and more covered up.

Then, just before totality happened (right on schedule—yay! science!) we could see the moon's shadow rapidly approaching from the west. So impressive! And when it hit our precise area it was really spectacular.

All the descriptions we'd been hearing about for weeks were spot on and while I don't think any of us came out of it personally transformed, as some of the hype had suggested, we all thought it was worth the drive and the preparations.

Our journey back to Ft. Collins did take considerably longer than the trip north did. Instead of people filtering up to the totality band gradually over several hours, if not days, a lot of the eclipse-rs were headed south at the same time. It took 45 minutes just to get out of the park, and traffic was stop and go off and on all the way down I-25. The 3-hour drive up took five hours heading south, which was not a lot of fun. (Although it apparently got worse later in the evening as the visitors from western Wyoming and eastern Nebraska all headed down the interstate.)

But we didn't have to drive any more once we got to Ft. Collins, thanks to our generous friends. Our return drives to Garfield happened on Tuesday.

Some of the kids are looking around for the next eclipse, which will happen in a year or two. But for the most part we're ok to plan on the 2024 full eclipse, for which San Antonio will be in the totality band. And, to be extra special, it will happen on Hal's birthday that year!

Purple mountains' majesty

The Rocky Mountains are something all Americans are justifiably proud of. Mountains anywhere are just about my favorite marvels of nature, and we are lucky to have some of the most spectacular specimens of the type right here in the land of E Pluribus Unum.

near St. Mary Lake, Glacier National Park

As habitual readers of this blog know, the Rockies I usually write about are in Colorado, and they are gorgeous there. But the northern stretch of the range, that we saw on our trip in June, has a whole different look. Even though the Colorado mountains are generally much higher (as I learned, the hard way, losing a bet with my husband) Montana's look more rugged and spectacular, due to the lower treeline (read the blog post in the previous link for more information about this fun fact).

view from the trail to Appistoki Falls, Glacier National Park

We saw great mountain scenery all through our trip. If you want to know more about how these behemoths came to be, there's a good, simple description the geology involved here, on the Glacier Park website.

What follow are some of my best photos, in the order taken. I tried to identify the peaks, but wasn't able to do so in all cases. I took a picture of a very helpful sign at Many Glacier that labelled everything you saw there, but if there were signs like that at other viewpoints, I didn't have the foresight to photograph them. (You'd think they could reproduce those signs on the Park websites, wouldn't you? I couldn't find them.)

at the Pine Creek trailhead, north of Yellowstone (note Spurs flag on rental car)

"top of the world" scenery along the Beartooth Highway, Montana/Wyoming

another Beartooth Highway view

Pilot Peak, northern Wyoming, just east of Yellowstone National Park

Even with spectacular sights nearer at hand, you still can be awed by peaks on the horizon. For example, the distant vista peeping above the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone...

In addition to the parks and wilderness, metropolitan areas in Montana (yes, they do have them) offer fabulous mountain views. Especially Butte, which is all but surrounded by a funny loop in the Continental Divide. So it's not too surprising there are sights like this just outside of town...

a portion of Butte's big pit, with unpitted mountains in the distance

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On to Glacier, where, not surprisingly, the most scenic peaks abound...

Rising Wolf Mountain, at Two Medicine Lake

view from the top of Aster Park Trail, near Two Medicine Lake

Happily, these mountains are just as lovely at a micro-scale as a macro...the rocks along the trail are beautiful and fascinating:

bedding planes at the top of Aster Park Trail

Of course, some of the rocks you can't get that close to...at least not on our time budget and with our paltry expertise...This peak is, I think, "Little Matterhorn," part of the amazing scenic backdrop for Avalanche Lake. (You can see what the lake looks like from the top here, if you've taken your dramamine!)

We were, unfortunately, just a little too early to be able to drive all of Going-to-the-Sun Highway (or you'd be treated to 3 or 4 times as many mountain photos!). But what we saw was fabulous enough. On the west side, Avalanche Creek was as far as you could go, but the east road was clear a little further, all the way to

more mountains so near,
and yet so far away...

Jackson Glacier Overlook.

Even though I couldn't identify the peaks at the overlook, I obviously just couldn't stop snapping photos of them. Going by the Glacier Park topographical map on my bedroom wall (yes, I have a topo map of Glacier on the wall in our bedroom; what can I say, I'm a map geek) they are possibly Fusillade Mountain, Citadel Mountain, Dusty Star Mountain, and maybe even Almost-a-Dog Mountain. That last one is a long shot, but I had to include it because of the name.

Here are just a sample of the views on offer at the overlook...

Like with the lakes, the crown jewel for mountain scenery is Many Glacier. I ask your patience in dealing with so many photos of stupendous scenery...I took about 200 and it was very hard to weed them down to even a semi-reasonable number. I have not had time to try and stitch together the panoramas that my camera tried to assist me with. If I can figure out how to do that, I'll post them at a future date. For now I'll have to show you these handsome devils one at a time...

Mt. Gould near sunset

Mt Gould in morning sun

I really liked the shape of Mt. Gould, it seems. I took more shots of him than any of the others. Here's a close-up of that imposing profile. The patch of snow in the shade at the far right is Gem Glacier.

Grinnell Point is the most imposing peak in the view, right in the middle. Here are both a wide shot and a close-up. (The distant conical peak on the right in the first shot is Swiftcurrent Mountain and the wider band of snow leading off the photo's edge is Swiftcurrent Glacier.)

reflected in the still morning lake

the point of Grinnell Point, in late afternoon sun

Another super-photogenic peak on the lake is Mt. Wilbur. Seems like a more stately name would have been more appropriate, but what's in a name?

more morning reflections

the pole on the lower right is the flagpole at the boat dock

Mt. Wilbur and friends, the Iceberg-PtarmiganWall, at sunset

I wish we could have taken a paddle out to the middle of the lake...what amazing views would that perspective yield! We definitely plan to go back, and will put that activity on our list for sure.

Believe it or not, I think that wraps up the story of our June vacation. As a reminder (to myself as well as my readers) here's a map that shows all the stops, as best I could find them, that we made on the trip. 

There won't be any new posts here for a little while, as I plan to rest from these labors. But another trip is coming up in the fall, so stay tuned!

Lakefront property

...that belongs to all of us.

Mountain lakes are major elements in the fantastic scenery one finds in the Rockies. And we got to see several stunning specimens.

The first lake we saw wasn't in Montana or Wyoming, but Utah, and the scenery surrounding it was a little different than the others.

We changed planes in Salt Lake City and this is their eponymous Lake, although it looks like the level is down pretty severely. I thought the dry lakebed and surrounding landscape was very striking and almost alien-looking.

Most of the lakes I want to show you, though, while being other-worldly-beautiful, don't look like they were transplanted from another planet. And most are in Glacier, so I'll start off with the two that are not.

Beartooth Lake (we think) in northern Wyoming

Yellowstone Lake, source of the gorgeous Yellowstone River

Glacier is simply awash in gorgeous lakes. The first one we visited was Two Medicine Lake, in the southeast corner of the Park.

Two Medicine Lake and Mt. Sinopah

the view from Paradise Point...aptly named!

Two Medicine Lake and Mt. Helen (I think)

A bit further north is St. Mary Lake, which is a very long finger of water in an incomparable setting...

looking upstream

looking back downstream

yes, the water really looks that green!

awesome, no?

Over on the west side of the Park we hiked up to Avalanche Lake, another stunner, on a, perhaps, more intimate scale. The lake itself, at least, is much smaller...

Avalanche Lake from the end of the trail

We spent a long time sitting on some logs by the lakeshore and just taking in this amazing scenery...

Another westside lake that's even easier to see is Lake McDonald; Going-to-the-Sun Highway drives right along its edge for several miles...

Gorgeous as these lakes are, though, the prize has to go to Swiftcurrent Lake, which provides the unbelievable scenic front porch for the Many Glacier Hotel, where we spent our last night.

Here's the lake view that greeted us upon our arrival...

wish we'd had time for some lake kayaking...next time!

handsome Mt. Gould presides over one end of Swiftcurrent Lake

It's really hard to convey the majesty of this scenery in a still shot. I took this video from the Hotel's deck to give you a 180+° look.

As fabulous as the lake looked in the afternoon and evening, in the early morning light it was even more stupendous...

Grinnell Point, Swiftcurrent Mt., and Mt. Wilbur, very early

Mt. Wilber, with the sun a little higher

As you can see the lake was almost like glass. What amazing reflections! There was a little ripple to the water, though, and I thought it was so lovely that I took a video of that, too.

Pretty as the lakes are, though, they honestly wouldn't be very impressive without the mountains, the real stars of the show in Big Sky Country. Next time I'll finish off my posts with views of these finest examples of geology's art.