| Last night we stayed at St. Mary's Lodge, a large hotel with three floors and very nice rooms. They also offer motor inn rooms across the road. This was the view from the balcony of our room, looking to the west toward the park.
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| This beautiful grizzly bear was on display in the lobby of the lodge, along with its story. The tri-colored (brown, silver, black) sow had been killing cattle in the area east of the park, which is not unusual except that she would not stay with the kill and feed off it for several days as is the typical behavior. Because of this developed blood lust and the damage to ranchers herds, a man whose name I don't remember set out to track and kill the bear. After two weeks of tracking through the wilderness, he was able to find and kill the sow.
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| Near the middle of St. Mary Lake, the gorgeous view of Wild Goose Island (yes, there's a tree growing on it) looking west with the Logan Pass area in the background. This is one of the best places to visualize the flow of several glaciers meeting in the area in the middle where the lake is now.
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| I believe this is Little Chief Mountain from across St. Mary Lake.
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| Wild Goose Island again, from the other direction
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| A short walk from the road, Sun Point juts out into the lake, where there is a spectacular view in all directions. It is often (and was today) a VERY winnnnddy place.
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| A black bear is watched by several near a restroom parking area. He's near the middle, a little black spot.
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| Clement's Mountain above Logan Pass. Are we finally going to get to do the Highline Trail, after 5 days of trying? It's so clear today! Notice the little puff of clouds to the right of the mountain?
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| This is what that little puff looks like when we get to the Pass. I guess we'll not be hiking Highline just yet. A brief clearing of the fog allows us to see the valley on the other side of Logan Pass.
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| Finally! The Pass is clear. We hiked 5.3 miles in 3 hours 15 minutes between Logan Pass and Haystack Butte. Thanks to the National Geographic Trails Illustrated people for this beautiful map.
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| A clear blue sky greets us at Logan Pass
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| The first bit of the Highline Trail is trees and meadows through the pass.
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| The view opens wide.
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| And then there's this. You quickly reach a section of trail that skirts the headwall, a cliff above you and below. I read about this section and, not having seen it, was apprehensive because the website said rangers had removed a safety cable at the headwall two weeks prior (they do this every winter). I had assumed that it was not a good idea to hike this without the safety cable in place, but the ranger at the Pass told us it wasn't a big deal. There were plenty of people on the trail, and it turned out the cable wasn't really needed.
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| Going-to-the-Sun Road parallels below the Highline Trail
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| Here you see two things. The metal eyebolt in the rock where the safety cable would normally be attached. In the distance, Going-to-the-Sun Road cuts a horizontal line along the mountains.
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| After the headwall, the trail opens into what it is for most of the stretch we did. A fairly narrow trail cut into the steep slope called the Garden Wall.
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| This was cool, we had just seen one of these on display in the Visitor's Center and so recognized it as Pika. Sort of a squirrel with smaller ears and tail.
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| Small runoff streams crossing the trail are common
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| Chip again
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| As the trail bends hard to the left in front of you, there's a great view of the Garden Wall and the Bishop's Cap formation above. Can you see the trail running horizontally through the middle of the photo?
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| The Road below and Logan Creek below that.
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| A closer view of the Haystack Butte
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| Where we decided to stop was a beautiful view in all directions
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| Heading back
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| Reynolds Mountain above Logan Pass and the valley below
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| Grasshopper, sort of surprised to see him. There weren't many bugs around.
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| Crossing the streams
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| It really hadn't been this sunny and bright until today. Somewhere along this hike I decided to try using my $9.99 plastic polarizing sunglasses as a glare filter. It didn't work half bad. Notice the first shot I hadn't quite got the camera level.
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| Back at the headwall
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| At the beginning of the trail, you see that you can just keep going as far as you like
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| The poles of Logan Pass... the park rangers watch the hikers returning from the trail.
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| Our room in the motor inn of the St. Mary Lodge. Not near as fancy as the main lodge, but it was nice enough.
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