Gunsight Pass, Part Three: Three Passes, Glacier National Park

Nic on Lincoln Pass. This is part two of a 19.5 mile day with 5,470 feet of elevation gain, including three passes (Comeau, Lincoln and Gunsight) When we finally limped into camp at Gunsight Lake, the other campers thought a plane had crashed nearby.

Nic wearing a shirt

 

 

 

 

 Mt. Edwards. The rooftop of Sperry Chalet is below in the trees. This is viewed from Lincoln Pass.

 

Lincoln Lake

 

There are a lot of mountain goats and they are right on the path. They use the trail to get around and they like licking up hiker's pee. Please, don't abuse that knowledge. Be decent. 

The iPhone camera does some weird things with its auto-exposure.

I liked both exposures so here are both.

Lake Ellen Wilson....

is huge.

 



There are a lot of baby goats, "kids," and protective mother goats "nannies."

We had to walk between this kid's nanny and the cliff on a one foot wide trail.

 

 

 

 

Lake Ellen Wilson, thats Gunsight Pass on the left and Mount Jackson across the lake

Lake Ellen Wilson from Gunsight Pass; a steep climb.

Shelter on Gunsight Pass

View on the other side

Gunsight Lake is fed by a dozen or so massive chains of waterfalls

Gunsight Pass is to the left, Gunsight Mt is left of center, Nic is in front of Gunsight Lake, we're on the Gunsight Pass Trail

Glacier National Park had 150 glaciers in 1850. Now its down to 25 due to global warming. In 20 years, they could all be gone. Besides having no glaciers, the lakes in the park will loose their blue color from glacial flur and turn brown. The number of avalanches will drop so the tree line will climb up the mountains closing the meadows where the goats and wildflowers are prominent. With drier, hotter summers there will also be more severe forest fires. So this is it, almost. Time to get out there.

That's Going-to-the-Sun Mountain in the background.

We reached Gunsight Campground as it was getting dark. It's at the right end of the lake in this photo. I went to the beach to filter some water and a family that had carried a lot of wine into the backcountry offered me the rest of a bag of Cabernet. Under the trees in the cooking area, Nic took off his socks and set them on a log and walked away for a minute. When him and I returned, a deer was racing away through the brush in front of us. When Nic grabbed his socks they were soaking wet. The deer had chewed them and left them soaked in spit. Nic refused to wear his socks after that. The nuisance deer, which we had been warned about at the permit station, is always at Gunsight Campground. Every two to three minutes, he dashes into camp like a maniac looking for food and socks and freaks out when he sees someone and throws himself over the thick bushes to get away. He is a classic example of a maniac. There should be a children's cartoon about him because he's a fool.

Gunsight Lake

Mountain Goats at Gunsight Campground