Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park, Looks Spectacular Today!

Look at this, just taken by the webcam:

Lake McDonald, January 26, 2015, 4 PM

Is this the most beautiful lake in the world?

To see the most current Glacier National Park webcams, click this link.

Cerulean Lake in Glacier National Park

Almost no one has seen Cerulean Lake first hand (much less swam in it!). The reason is that there is no trail to this beautiful blue lake in Glacier National Park--you have to bushwhack there. Jeremy and Carolan did just that last week. They hiked from Bowman Lake to Quartz Lake, paddled up Quartz, hiked to Cerulean Lake, then floated on that lake. Then they both dove into this lake, fed by glaciers.

Diving into chilly Cerulean Lake

Carolan and Jeremy on Quartz Lake

Cutthroat Trout in the hand!

On the Bear Creek Trail, Bob Marshall Wilderness

Who Will Defend the Wilderness? I Know a Few Warriors!

On my recent visit to Montana I started to think about the importance of defending Wilderness, defending the natural environment. We need to explain the importance of Wilderness to people of good will--and then stand up and fight for it! If not us--then who? I know there are a dozen other critically important things to think about. Please include the natural environment and true wilderness among them.

I am proud to say that my daughter Carolan is one of the defenders. She works much of the time in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, a gigantic and important wilderness complex just south of Glacier National Park. A couple weeks ago we met her after she hiked out (I think that morning it was a 15-mile hike) to the Spotted Bear Ranger Station. She had been supervising and training trail maintenance crews in "The Bob," as the Bob Marshall Wilderness is called. Sometimes she works at the Kalispell office of the Montana Conservation Corps (MCC). Other times she's in the field--The Bob, Glacier National Park, the Kootenai, or some other park or forest in Northwest Montana.

Carolan and Bob at Spotted Bear Ranger Station

Carolan's friend Jeremy Rust is also a defender of Wilderness. He works for the U.S. Forest Service and is Carolan's companion-in-adventure. They recently hiked in Glacier NP from Bowman Lake to Quartz Lake, paddled the length of Quartz Lake, then bushwacked their way up to Cerulean Lake. I don't think many people have had this firsthand experience! I recently saw Jeremy in the Two-Medicine area of Glacier:

Jeremy and Bob, by Running Eagle Falls, Two Medicine area, Glacier NP

I have met many other MCC and Forest Service workers: Lauren, Cliff, Elisheba, Beth Hodder, and many others. They are the hardest working people I know, tough as nails, and vigorous defenders of Wilderness and the Wilderness Ethic (which I will talk more  about in the future).

Logging Lake and Grace Lake--in Glacier National Park

My daughter Carolan lives near Glacier National Park in Montana. Last Sunday she and her friend Jeremy hiked and paddled Logging Lake and Grace Lake in the wild and remote northwestern part of Glacier. Here are a few photos from that adventure. Besides paddling two lakes, Carolan and Jeremy hiked 19 miles that day.

Carolan hiking a muddy trail near Logging Lake

Carolan paddling Logging Lake

Carolan and Jeremy on Grace Lake

Cutthroat Trout (he lived to see another day)

Waterfalls at the end of Grace Lake

Jeremy paddling Logging Lake

Carolan and Jeremy--Happy

Carolan and Jeremy: "I'm Sittin' on Top of the World . . ."

Winter camping in the mountains north of Whitefish, Montana--with a view of Flathead Lake, Glacier National Park, even Canada!

Carolan and Jeremy--Sunny Day on Top of the
World!

A long, demanding hike on snow shoes (Carolan) and skins (Jeremy). North of Whitefish-Big Mountain (Montana)

Cold? Are you kidding? Hiking near Mt. Standard (Montana)

Winter camping near Mt. Standard, Montana. Warm as Toast!

[These photos are the intellectual property of either Jeremy Rust or Carolan Coughlin. All Rights Reserved.]

Blow up your TV

Here is a chorus from an old song by John Prine (later recorded by John Denver):

Blow up your T.V. throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a homePlant a little garden, eat a lot of peachesTry an find Jesus on your own.


Well last month we spent 10 days on an electronic fast--no television, almost no radio, no internet, no newspapers. It wasn't as hard for me as I expected. In fact, it was rather wonderful.

The "electronic fast" was imposed by the wildernesses of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Glacier National Park in Montana. There is only very spotty cell phone reception in these parks; the same with internet connectivity. We probably could have had some radio reception, but we left the radio off. And in the parks we had absolutely no access to television.

So we didn't exactly "blow up the tv," but we might as well have. I don't hate these electronic media. But i realize that they can hook you and hurt you. Human beings lived without these things for, say, 200,000 years. We don't need them; we shouldn't be slaves to them.

Where McDonald Creek Meets McDonald Lake--Glacier National Park

Dancing at Sacred Dancing Cascade, Glacier National Park

Carolan and Linda doing a little dance at Sacred Dancing Cascade, on McDonald Creek, in Glacier National Park. I have heard that American Indians called Lake McDonald "The Place Where They Dance" and "Sacred Dancing Lake."

McDonald Creek and Cascade from Foot/Horse Bridge

Looking south from the McDonald Creek Bridge

Still Deep Snow on Montana Mountain --Carolan Discovers!

Early Saturday my daughter Carolan started hiking from the Holland Lake Campground with the goal of meeting some of her friends working on the eastern side of the Swan Range in Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness. She began on the Holland Falls Trail (Trail 416). After a couple miles she crossed  the footbridge over Holland Creek and continued on Trail 35. After 6 or so miles of hiking she skirted Upper Holland Lake and at that point had to strap on her snowshoes. She then hiked uphill in increasingly deep snow for a couple miles heading for Gordon Pass. Her goal was Shaw Cabin. As she approached the top of the Pass, which is about 7000 foot elevation, she could no longer see the trail. The snow was almost 10-feet deep in places. Carolan realized that continuing on would be dangerous, so she reluctantly turned back. She had already hiked almost  7 or 8 miles, with about as much to go to Shaw Cabin. So she hiked back 7 or 8 miles until she reached her car at the Holland Lake trailhead.  She had hiked that day 15 to 16 miles with about 4 of those miles in snowshoes. The first half of the trip was pretty steep and she was tired out and somewhat disappointed about not reaching her goal.

But who can complain about a day's hike in one of America's greatest wildernesses? Shaw Cabin will wait for another day, later in the season.

Holland Falls (image found on the internet)

Any doubts about the snow depths around Glacier National Park and The Bob can be put to rest by this image that appeared on the Glacier National Park Facebook page (below):

Logan Pass in Glacier National Park--Mid May

Beautiful Morning in Glacier National Park

Here's the webcam picture of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, from Apgar Village--one of the world's most beautiful places:

Carolan will cross country ski not far from here today--at Marias Pass.

Chainsaws, Ax, and MCC Crew on US-Canadian Border

Tell me this isn't scary!

Lauren, Cliff, Sonny, and Carolan were cutting up fallen timber at the Glacier Institute, up the North Fork of the Flathead River--adjacent to Glacier National Park, not far from the Montana-Canadian border.

Marion Lake in the Bob Marshall Wilderness

Sunset at Lake Marion, looking toward Glacier National Park

Perfect Day for Ice Fishing!

"Shredding it"--as my daughter would say

Carolan and Jeremy, above Marion Lake, near Essex, Montana--looking toward Glacier National Park

A Place In Glacier National Park

Webcam image of Apgar Lookout, Glacier NP, 17 Jan 2013.

Glacier National Park: Big Early Snowfall!

Here's a view from Glacier Park's "Two Medicine" webcam. Winter has arrived in Glacier!

Most Beautiful Lake?

Look at this astonishing webcam photo of Lake McDonald, in Glacier National Park (right close to where my daughter works). The photo was taken around 8:40 AM (US Mountain Time) on October 17, 2012:

The Bob: Deep Deep Wilderness

My daughter Carolan works at times in Glacier National Park and at times in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex (known as "The Bob"). The entire Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex--3 adjacent defined wilderness areas, comprises 1,535,352 acres--which I calculate to be about 2,344 square miles of wilderness. If you add to this total Glacier National Park (about 1,544 square miles), you have wilderness or near wilderness of about 3,888 square miles. For some perspective, the state of Rhode Island covers about 1,214 square miles; Delaware is 2,490 square miles. In reality, the protected ecosystem, including a portion of Canada and state and national forest lands surrounding the Bob and Glacier, have about 16,000 square miles--what is known as the "Crown of the Continent Ecosystem." Compare this to the state of Massachusetts, which covers 10,555 square miles. So this wilderness or near wilderness covers more territory than Delaware, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts combined. This is a big, wild country! Don't get lost there, O Carolan!

Big Salmon Lake in "The Bob"--Wikipedia

A Few Photos from Lake McDonald, Glacier NP

Bob swimming in chilly Lake McDonald

Carolan and Bob by Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park

Carolan on her 27th birrthday, Apgar Village Inn, Glacier NP

Most Beautiful Lake in the World?

Everyone knows my love for Lake Erie. But check out Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park! This is a webcam photo, taken the morning of August 2, 2012.

Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park in northwest Montana is one of the world's great treasures. Above is a photo of me enjoying my morning coffee on the shores of McDonald Lake, with some of the peaks of Glacier NP in the background. The lake itself is about 10 miles long and a mile wide, with water crystal clear and clean. It reminds me of the lakes of the Salzkammergut in Austria or Aachensee in the Tirol region of Austria.

The peaks in the background are probably on the Continental Divide and are about 9000 feet in altitude. There are still some small glaciers on these peaks (though the weather in recent years has caused them to shrink). We took the park's shuttle bus up Going to the Sun Road to Logan Pass, which is at 6600 feet, and there was still considerable snow at that elevation. I'm glad I left the driving to professionals on this famous road. I found the drive scary indeed, with no guardrails and drops of hundreds or thousands of feet if you went over the edge. Heck, in Ohio there would be flashing caution lights and guardrails if there was even the slightest chance you could slip off the road into an Ohio-sized creek or ravine. Here they say "Good Luck" as you drive unguarded by 2000 foot cliffs!

Sacred Dancing Cascade in Glacier National Park

The clip above stars Carolan Coughlin, on a short break from her job with the Montana Conservation Corps (MCC), and Linda Coughlin, on hiatus from St. Mary's School, Chardon. Videographer and narrator, Bob Coughlin. This is the "Sacred Dancing Cascade," on McDonald Creek in Glacier National Park. The namer of the cascade was a poet indeed!