We saw no wildlife on the drive out of GNP. The Sun was out today and at this altitude with less atmosphere to diffuse its light it was blinding driving towards it. Sunglasses helped but it was still annoying and difficult to see.
After we re-entered the park on the Going to the Sun Road as we crossed a small bridge I saw a beautiful buck deer standing right beside the road on a small hill. He posed nicely for us. Penny discovered why he was standing there. Down in the grass right beside our car was a doe grazing. The male was waiting for her. We got some nice pictures.
The Sun Point Trail runs along St Mary’s Lake and on this beautiful sunny day we had wonderful views of the lake and mountains surrounding it. We got some of our best pictures on this hike. Barrow Falls turned out to be a relatively small one and not very picturesque.
From here it was 1.2 miles to the junction with the St Mary’s falls trail. This trail is not as popular as the others but surprisingly it was full of awesome views of the lake.
On the St Mary’s trail we were introduced to Thimbleberries. A wild berry that tastes like raspberries. They come off the plant in your fingers in the shape of a small thimble. It was neat eating wild berries all along the hike.
The trail to these falls is relatively short and it is very popular. There were hikers in sight almost all the way. St Mary’s falls are beautiful. There is a bridge in front of the falls and there are several nice picture spots.
We sat down on some sunny rocks to rest and have water and energy snacks. I looked up to see a deer come out of the woods and stroll up the path we had just come in on.
The hike from St Mary’s to Virginia Falls was interesting. The falls are not marked with signs. We knew we should have to go about 0.6 miles but after about 0.3 miles we came upon what looked like falls.
Many hikers assumed this was the destination, linger a while and head back. The hiking book I bought on Red Bus day came in handy here. It clearly described Virginia Falls and this was not it. Oh, I forgot. Shortly after leaving St Mary’s Falls we came upon a deer grazing in the path ahead of us. We stalked it for maybe a quarter mile. Interestingly, after leaving the false falls #1 we came upon another set of falls, again not our destination.
Finally after the expected 0.6 mile hike we first heard and then saw Virginia Falls. Beautiful! The path brings you right to the base of the falls, so close that you are rewarded with the cool air and spray of the falls. There was so much spray that you couldn’t get a picture that didn’t have spray on the lens.
Having reached our destination we rewarded ourselves with peanut M&Ms. I crawled around on the rocks taking pictures from various angles and vantage points. The best picture still turned out to be the ones taken in the spray at the base of the falls.
We retraced our steps back to Sun Point eating thimbleberries and taking more pictures from the opposite direction.
We reached the car tired and ready for linner at the Park Café. Once again we treated ourselves to razzleberry pie and coffee.
Instead of going to the hotel we drove past it to the end of the road at Swift Current Lodge to see if any wildlife had been spotted in the surrounding mountains. We found that park rangers had set up “bear scopes” and had them trained on a big grizzly way up on the mountain. It was only a small moving brown spot to the naked eye but the powerful bear scope telescope clearly showed the bear as it prowled the mountainside.
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