Going To The Sun Road – Slow Shutter Speed

Posted on August 20, 2017 by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

On the road again: Leaving Glacier National Park

Right now, I’m sitting inside my air conditioned trailer courtesy of the National Oldtime Fiddlers Association in Weiser ID. It’s hot outside and people from all over are coming in to view tomorrow’s solar eclipse. Whether I will be able to shoot it is still up in the air.

In the meantime, I’m going to show you some images from the Going To The Sun Road that are new, a couple from a pull out on the road heading into Idaho and one of a new fire.

I’m glad we went to Glacier National Park. It’s been on my bucket list for a long time. I can wish there was no smoke and no fires, but I’ve learned to deal with what I’ve got. That was my part of the trip and now we’re on to Richard’s part. Not that he didn’t enjoy Montana, and I’m certainly going to enjoy my once-in-a lifetime eclipse.

So here’s the end of Glacier National Park and, looking forward, perhaps, a way for me to shoot the eclipse.

On the shore of Lake McDonald.

Rocky shore!

Once into Idaho, we were stopped and advised about this new roadside fire.

This was a new fire also.

We pulled out at this beautiful river.

Idaho is beautiful.

White sand beach.

A drive by shot.

This one too.

And a third

Posted on August 15, 2017 by Anne Sandler

On the road again: Kalispell, Bigfork, & Swan Lake

Can I grumble just a little? No! Well, it’s just frustrating to be in a beautiful place and shoot through a smokey haze. In fact, Richard has been unable to star or sun gaze. There, I grumbled! Now, let’s continue with our Montana experience.

In this post, I’m showing you three of our day journeys. The fires and smoke made it almost impossible to shoot in Glacier National Park (GNP), and we went wherever a truck could take us.

Again, unless you can hike miles, the Going To The Sun Road is the main attraction. So, one day we took off to Kalispell, a city larger than we’ve experienced in the region. We found a State Park and, at the overlook, saw the valley below. We also found Foy Lake. Lunch was at a small Italian place, and we enjoyed great pizza. Here are some images from Kaliispell.

The overlook view.

Another view of Foy Lake

Foy Lake.

The Flathead County building.

Bigfork was the following evening. It’s a small community on Flathead Lake–the largest fresh water lake west of the Mississippi. Cute is the word to describe the town. We found a Forest Service picnic area and went down to the lake. You can see the smoke almost covers the horizon on the lake.

Fun on the lake.

You can see how bad the smoke is.

Boat rental closed for the evening.

Also more towards evening was our visit to Swan Lake. Another quaint community, not far from Bigfork. Here we surprised a doe feeding locally. What a trip that was for me. She allowed me to get close, and was only scared away when Richard started the truck engine. Families were packing their picnic supplies and rafts, etc. We talked to a fireman who said the fires will end about October. This was the worst of the smoke. The featured image is from Swan Lake.

Swan Lake is beautiful, but that day it was also dramatic.

The sky was mean. We left when the wind started and the rain began.

This doe was enjoying a meal in the front grass area of a business.

She let me get close to her.

At the boat dock.

That night, we had a storm and heavy rain. The next morning, the sky was beautiful. Fortunately, we we had arranged for a boat ride at Two Medicine Lake and hike to Twin Falls in GNP that day. You’ll find out about that in another post.

Thanks for letting me grumble for a little bit!

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Anne Sandler · 6 Comments

On the road again: More from the twisty Going To The Sun Road, Glacier National Park

I’ve been in a lot of National Parks throughout the USA. In fact, that’s how we typically plan our vacation–which park do we want to visit and what’s around there. Glacier NP was on the list when we went across country in 2013, but for medical reasons, we didn’t make it.

Now we’re here, 4 years later. And, now I understand what the Ranger meant the first day when she kept mentioning the Going To The Sun Road. There really aren’t many other paved roads! Most other NPs have a bunch of paved roads that can get you around. I’m not complaining, the road is beautiful and can take a whole day to drive. However, we’re trying to figure out how to get to the Canadian Waterton National Park.

In the meantime, I do have another set from our drive on the Going To The Sun Road. No more grumbling. I’m sure we’ll come up with a solution and find some more roads.

When these were taken, the skies were relatively clear and cloudy. Tuesday, August 8, there were four fires in the Park. We were surrounded by haze as we wandered in and out of the park. You’ll see the fire effects in my next post.

Honestly, I’m not sure where on the road this was.

Another i’m not sure of.

This was a drive by.

The Weeping Wall. The darker areas are flowing water. There was no place to pull off nearer.

A waterfall at Big Bend.

There was still some snow.

And still some wildflowers.

More wildflowers

Scenes like this are abundant. Mountains and valleys and small rivers.

Packed snow.

A closer look.

Another water fall.

St. Mary’s Lake at the East Side of the Park.

On the road again: On the Going To The Sun Road, GNP

We had three options when deciding how to discover what we could along the Going To The Sun Road (GTTS) in Glacier National Park (GNP). We chose to drive it ourselves and not take the free Park shuttle (which really didn’t stop at places we wanted it to) or the pricey Red Bus. It’s been my experience that when on tours, the photographer may want to take a slightly longer time to get the shot, so……..

It took us at least four hours to get across the 50 mile road through the Park. Yes, a lot of it was spent shooting. Richard even pulled out his cell phone to take some pictures. I’d lie if I said it was an easy drive. It was for me, the passenger, but not for Richard. Once we got to the east end of the Park, Richard was exhausted. An ice cream sandwich later, Richard felt better. We decided to go back to the RV park in Columbia Falls by going outside the park. A little over 2 hours later, we were back to the trailer–both tired.

It was worth it. The scenery was beautiful. Our National Parks are amazing and we need to do everything possible to protect them.

Because of our age and physical capabilities, I knew we’d do two days in the park and rest another, and things are happening that way. Today, I’ve been editing, walking and editing. Here’s the first installment of images. I’ll try to keep up by editing while Richard naps and on our days off.

Tomorrow we go into the park to discover what other options we have other than the GTTS Road.

At Lake McDonald.

People waiting for the boat tour.

Bored? Skip some rocks.

Inside the McDonald Lodge.

The ceiling at the Lodge.

This was a stop along the road.

It was difficult to capture what we saw.

From the amazing rocks.

To the rushing water.

The last of this series.

Back on the road.

Shot through the truck’s front window.

A drive by.

A small tunnel. We thought it was amazing and difficult it must have been to build this road.

It was difficult to identify the names of places. I was working with the RTTS map and sometimes signage. Heavens Peak.

At one stop Richard spotted these deer. They weren’t too close.

My 18 – 140 mm did as well as it could. When editing I saw that these two were bucks!

Posted on August 5, 2017August 5, 2017 by Anne Sandler · 3 Comments

On the road again: First glimpse GNP

Excitement churned inside me. This was to be our first time in Glacier National Park, located in Montana , but as we approached traffic was backed up 1/4 mile before we could show our senior pass and get in. I thought, not another Yosemite! I have seen many traffic jams in Yosemite Valley.

All we knew was that we needed to go on the Going To The Sun road that stretches across the park. Because we arrived late, we wanted to do something else for our introduction to the Park. Our friendly Park ranger kept telling us to either ride the tram or drive on the Going To The Sun road (GTTS). “You’ll see everything,” she said.

“But what about this area?” I asked, pointing on the map. She mumbled something about the GTTS road. I knew that conversation was hopeless. So we took our maps and literature back to the car. We mapped out a plan while we ate our lunch.

Since there was a 2 1/2 hour wait to get on the shuttle, we decided to walk to Lake McDonald and do the loop along McDonald Creek. Well, we didn’t get on the right trail, but we weren’t alone. Two other couples were walking the wrong trail. It was pretty and moseyed along the creek.

We wanted to build up our walking/hiking legs slowly after sitting in the truck for four days. And this walk was the perfect distance. Tomorrow, we’ll get there early, hop on the tram, go all the way across the Park, and decide where to get off on the way back. I’m also thinking that if we wait until Monday, there may be less people.

We’ll decide tomorrow. At least for today we got our first glimpse of GNP.