My New Blog Banner Image is Glacier Park

A week ago I started thinking about giving my website a new look (subscribers please click through to the site), more in tune with my geology oriented writings. I started rummaging through my picture collection and found some of my trip to Glacier National Park, Montana. I trekked there a few years ago with friends from my graduate student days. Oh, its going to be quite a leisurely trip I was told. Having not read A Walk In The Woods, having not educated myself on what humans have to endure during a sustained wilderness trek I recklessly accepted the invite. Okay, so I am complaining, I went through pain, but in the end it was a glorious experience.

The picture I have displayed on the banner was at the end of the wilderness section of the trip. Six days before I took the picture I was on the other side of the craggy peaks, and you get an idea of what I am talking about. 70 miles in six days and having crossed Stoney Indian pass at around 8000 feet (see map below) we were at Goat Haunt waiting for the ferry to take us to Waterton. We could have trekked that last section too, but a hot shower was too much to resist and I jumped on the ferry.


Source: National Park Service

Glacier National Park is one of the underrated jewels of the American National Park system. Maybe its the remote location in Montana near the border with Canada, but even in the height of holiday season, there is no sign of the bumper to bumper traffic that plagues Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Smokies. There is a new threat though of climate change and receding glaciers. There were 150 of them in 1850. Today only 26 remain and shrinking fast. The National Park service has some podcasts of climate related research which are worth a listen. I recommend a visit to the park, preferably soon to catch the last of the glaciers. I want to go there again. Maybe on this future visit I will take the time to look at some of the geology.