High water

Today (Friday Nov 10) my hiking group and I went to Glacier Park to see the high water on McDonald Creek from the recent heavy rains. Apparently Glacier Park received over 11 inches of rain over five days last week. This is the most rain they have ever received over a five day period.

Group: Bill, Joyce, Arnie, Sue Ann, Me
Lake MacDonald Lodge --- Avalanche Creek
Mileage: 5.7 miles one way
Time: 10:25 am to 12:30 pm

When driving to the Park on Hwy 2, as we drove though Badrock Canyon, we could see that the Flathead River was higher than normal.

The Going-to-the-Sun road was closed and gated at the Lake McDonald parking area. We had the road to ourselves as we walked except for a Park Ranger in a pickup as he drove by several times during our walk.

The sun tried to come out a few times but by the end of our hike hours later it was completely cloudy with increasing snowflakes filtering through the trees.

McDonald Creek:

A little further up the road is the horse bridge across McDonald Creek. As you can see from the photos, the bridge was destroyed.

First are the National Park Service photos posted on their web site Nov 7. See how high the water is?

The next series of photos were taken Nov 10. You can see how the bridge was destroyed. Notice how the iron beams were bent.

Scenery on the Sun Road on the way to the next stop:

Here is the observation platform Nov 7 and Nov 10:

More scenery on the way to Avalanche Lake trail.

More of the hike will be in a later post.