#glacier np

[hikingsafari]

Off to Glacier again on the Highline Trail. Great Views of Logan Pass below.

[mpaull2]

Bighorn Sheep, Glacier NP. Picture by mpaull2

[constantlyfalling]

May I present your dash with this goat that looks like it’s laughing?

[pastordude87]

National Park Bucket List

Where have you been? Where do you want to go? How do you keep it all straight? I have a regret … I waited toooooo long to start my hiking hobby. In high school, a great guy at my church in Derita, NC (Charlotte metro area) took our young band of merry teens hiking and even little repelling/climbing. I totally enjoyed but didn’t get hooked. Maybe it was growing up in city life (DC area, Dallas,…

[oatmilkenjoyer69]

Glacier National Park, June 2023

[monriatitans]

QUOTE OF THE DAY Saturday, March 11, 2023

"Nunataks are rocky islands that are surrounded by flowing glacier ice. As the glaciers surrounding a nunatak come together, a medial moraine composed of rockfall from the nunatak often marks their confluence." - National Park Services, "Nunataks, Arêtes, and Horns"

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The image, initially, was made with and shared via the Quotes Creator App to Instagram; check it out here! The quote choice was inspired by Oxford English Dictionary's Word of the Day: nunatak. Interested in seeing where the quote came from? If so, click here!

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Watch MonriaTitans & WGS on Twitch and YouTube!

[highways-are-liminal-spaces]

left chicago at 11:19 am yesterday, arrived in glacier np and at 12:34 pm today 🫡

[mountrainiernps]

Numerous wildflowers are beginning to bloom in the park! Early season subalpine wildflowers in full swing include avalanche and glacier lilies. Avalanche lilies (Erythronium montanum) can form abundant colonies that fill the meadows with white and yellow blooms. This patch was photographed along the Paradise Valley Road, where avalanche lilies are covering the west-facing slopes. It can take several years for each plant to start blooming, and they are easily damaged when trampled. Please stay on trails, even if it means crossing patches of snow, to help protect the subalpine wildflower meadows! What early wildflowers are you observing in the park?

For updates on what’s blooming where visit https://go.nps.gov/RainierWildflower

Unfamiliar with Mount Rainier’s wildflower species? Check out the wildflower guide at https://go.nps.gov/RainierWildflowerGuide

NPS Photo of avalanche lilies along the Paradise Valley Road, 7/10/24.

[constantlyfalling]

Feeling blue

[emilybeemartin]

Inktober Days 13-15

Day 13: "Rise"

Rangers sometimes talk about their “heart parks”—the intimately special ones that make us go dreamy-eyed and nostalgic. Grand Teton is my heart park. During undergrad, I was going through a rough patch, missing my backcountry work in New Mexico and feeling out of place at Clemson. I told my friend that I “just wanted to go somewhere.” He asked if I wanted to go for a walk. I told him no, I’d like to go to the Grand Tetons. I don’t know why I decided on that particular place in that moment—I’d never been there and had only ever seen photos of the famous mountain group. But my friend said sure, we could go to the Grand Tetons. He proceeded to lead me outside student housing, checked the cardinal directions in the sky, and struck off northwest. I followed him. We walked around campus for hours that night, talking about a hundred different things. It was the first time after returning from New Mexico that I’d felt really heard, really understood, really happy.

A few months later, that friend became my boyfriend, and a few years later, that boyfriend became my husband. There was no question about where we would honeymoon. We went to Grand Teton.

Day 14: "Castle"

I’ve been struggling with what to say about Mesa Verde, because this site was so incredible to visit that I almost can’t put it to words. I experienced it while conducting my master’s research between stops in Navajo National Monument and Chaco Canyon. Visiting these cultural sites, tied together by sociopolitical events and natural disasters over the span of centuries, drove home how vast the network of humanity was in the Ancestral Puebloan era. These places were huge hubs of activity and massive feats of architecture—not castles, but communities humming with life, love, loss, struggle, wealth, and beauty.

Mesa Verde was also the only place I saw a ranger bring an audience to tears with the emotion in his program. I audited over two hundred interpretive programs that summer, but I remember lowering my clipboard during this particular tour of Cliff Palace, in awe of how powerfully the ranger was able to connect visitors with his own familial ties to the Ancestral Puebloans who had lived there so long ago. The goal of interpretation is to facilitate a meaningful connection between the visitor and the resource, but never have I ever seen anyone do it so profoundly as that ranger in Mesa Verde, 2011.

Day 15: "Dagger"

White Sands preserves practically the entire span of human history, from fragments of ancient blades up to the space shuttle and missile launches. But it's the beginning of that timeline that draws me toward this gleaming gypsum dunefield.

I remember where I was when the news dropped—in the Apgar ranger office with a handful of other Glacier rangers. I was working on my hunting and gathering program, where I discussed old facts about projectile points and atlatls, but I stopped when another ranger swore in shock. An email had come through to our NPS accounts with new research out of White Sands. Human footprints preserved in the ancient sediment had been dated--- not to the 13-16 thousand years old we typically associated with the earliest humans in the Americas, but to 23 THOUSAND YEARS OLD. In one short email, our whole office's reckoning of human history almost doubled. Our minds were blown. We celebrated like a bunch of lads after a World Cup win. This world that we walk! Footsteps over footsteps over footsteps! What a privilege.

[pacificnorthwestcore]

Glacier NP

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Sunlight Breaking Through Fog, Glacier NP

By Optimal Focus Photography

[cahootings]

top 5 hiking trails !

OKAY SO

I can't rank these!! But these are maybe 5 of my most beloved.

Queen's Garden/Navajo Loop in Bryce Canyon NP

Geology 10/10. You can actually wander through the hoodoos with this trail. I recommend taking the switchbacks at the end rather than starting there because at least your ascent will be slightly more gentle and predictable that way!

Deer Mountain, Rocky Mountain NP

Probably the most rewarding hike I've done. I'm really proud of myself for it. 1400 feet of elevation on a 90ºF day was no joke, but the views were so worth it. And now I can say I've climbed a mountain :)

Nymph/Dream/Emerald/Haiyaha lakes, RMNP

Okay I've done a few iterations of these trails now over the years and frankly the way up to Dream Lake is the best. Photo under the cut. Don't do this during spring melt because it SUCKSSSSSSS but when it's either solid snow or fully melted, well, I love you trail. Take crampons.

Meadow Run/Great Gorge/GAP, Ohiopyle State Park

I can't pick just one trail here but I'm lumping them because you can hike them all sequentially. Cascades and natural water slides and waterfalls and PA's loveliest whitewater. Even better in the winter when there are almost no people around, the mountain laurels are still green, everything is covered in thick ice, and crampons let you prance around like an elf.

Moraine and Glacier Loop, Moraine State Park

Another favorite state park back home. This trail especially in the late spring is just the best. You get lakeside, you get rocky switchbacks, you get ridgeline views, you get wildflowers. Plus I saw a really cool bone here once.

hi on the way up to dream lake

icy cucumber falls ohiopyle beloved

bryce canyon bucket list hike for real!!!! would love to go back here someday

deer mountain summit !

[speedilydeepruins]

Sought of an impromptu trip to South Island of New Zealand. Ended up at the Mount Cook NP. Did the Tasman Glacier walk. And getting to view the glacier closely. The Tasman Glacier is NZ longest glacier (approximately 24 km long) and is one of several large glaciers which flow south and east towards the Mackenzie Basin from the Southern Alps in New Zealand.

[mutant-distraction]

www.EnjoyYourParks.com.

Mountain Goat

Hidden Lake Overlook, Glacier NP.