Fog, Fog, and More Fog - 16

08.16.14

It was our first time in Glacier National Park. The first thing we headed to in the morning was the Amazing Crepes store. I was anxious to try more crepes, that were amazing, just like the store title implied. This time, I shared a dark chocolate and strawberry crepe and a ham and cheddar crepe with my mom. The ham one was almost as good as the chocolate one, but I guess I'm biased because I love chocolate. Anyway, that was great but I was stuffed. Completely full. I wasn't sure that I'd eat lunch, or even dinner, or ever again. I could barely walk, but it felt good.

Dark chocolate & fresh strawberries

We drove to a trail leading to Avalanche Lake, but there was no parking. We literally had to drive around for 5 minutes before finding a spot; and that place wasn't even technically a parking spot. The place was crowded with tons of people. It had to be a popular trail. 

The trail wasn't hard; a few uphills with more flat ground than uphill. Clouds hovered overhead, but not a single drop had landed yet. We made it all the way to the lake without being rained on, and I wanted it to stay that way. Tons of people stood around the edge of the lake. The lake was really clear and pretty, with the reflection shown crystal clear. The tips of the mountain were covered by fog, and the fog slowly made its way down the side of the mountain. Jasmine and I started skipping stones. I wasn't good. For about every 5 throws, I could get one stone to skip twice. But Jasmine was worse. She hadn't skipped a single stone. My dad saw us both struggling, and came to help. He told us to spin the stone, and I got two skips, but that didn't help. His next step of advice was showing us himself. The problem was that he could skip 5, while we were barely even amateurs. After practice, I think I finally got the hang of it, and I got 3 skips twice. Still not a pro, but an accomplishment for me.

Avalanche Lake

While we were practicing skipping stones, all of a sudden the rain came down in buckets. It was bad. We ran under a tree to get our ponchos out, trading multiple times because "it's too small!" "I can't fit my backpack in!" mostly from my parents, because luckily I didn't carry a backpack. And you should have seen how quickly the people cleared out. In just a minute, there was no one left but us. So we headed back also.

What Hidden Lake looks like...

Our next stop was Hidden Lake. I'd seen the pictures, and they looked really, really beautiful. I was excited to see it, but I was worried the fog would be in the way. It was. On our way up, we drove on this monumental mountain drive called "Going to the Sun" or "GTTS" for short. It had an amazing view. But a ways in to the drive, the fog started clouding out everything. It was all over the place. It soon got so thick that we couldn't see ten meters ahead of us, and if you looked at the side, you'd see a blanket of white and nothing else. Cars had turned on their emergency light just so they could be seen, but even then you couldn't see them unless you were pretty close. It was actually really cool, but outside it was freezing. And my camera couldn't focus on anything because it was just all white.

...what we saw.

When we got to Hidden Lake, we were in for a big disappointment. The whole lake was covered by fog, and we couldn't see a single thing other than a few trees. We stood in the mist, waiting to see if the fog would clear out and hopefully give us a glimpse of the lake. It didn't happen. Eventually, we gave up and left, as another group arrived. Just as they arrived, the fog cleared a little. Excitedly we scrambled back to the edge of the lookout to see the lake. It was just a tiny bit, but it was still cool. The water was super blue. Then, suddenly, the fog was blown away even more, and more of the lake appeared. It was actually really breathtaking, and I couldn't believe that we'd been lucky enough to witness it on a foggy day unlike any I've seen before. After the fog retreated back to where it had been before, we left and went home.