Once we reached Marias Pass on the Continental Divide the clouds ended and it was nothing but blue skies ahead. Around East Glacier everything was white, having been covered by thick frost.
Once we had crossed the Continental Divide there was hardly any snow. We had hoped to ski but also brought snowshoes and hiking boots for whatever the conditions were. It can get windy in the Two Medicine Valley and we expected most of the snow to be blown off the road. To our surprise we could only drive a half mile off of Hwy 49 on the road to Two Medicine. Any more would be risking it - and Joyce didn't bring a shovel along in her car. Probably a quarter mile down the road was the furthest any vehicle had traveled. Judging from the broken pine branches they must have used them for traction in helping them get unstuck.
At the end of the afternoon when we returned to the car we saw fresh tracks. That vehicle didn't go as far as seen in the above photo before they wised up and turned around.
Our destination is to the left of the leftmost white mountain (Rising Wolf Mountain) in the distance. We had already skied a half mile to a mile when I took this photo. Lower Two Medicine Lake is in the foreground.
There were plenty of ski tracks in the snow. And some foot prints. The snow depth varied from a small amount to deep. When the snow was deep the footprints sunk deep even though the person tried to walk in various ski tracks. The further we went the less tracks. By the time we reached the Glacier Park gate only a few tracks were left.
Shortly after we entered the park the snow disappeared from the road and we had to ski in the ditch. By now there was only one set of ski tracks. The bare road last several miles. The ski tracks turned around short of the return of the road snow. If they had only gone around one more bend in the road...
We skied the .3 mile to see Running Eagle Falls. I was able to ski relatively close to the falls. I even skied/climbed up to the observation platform and back down without falling into the water. In fact I didn't crash once on this trip. The snow was good for skiing. The temperature was in the 20s so the snow wasn't sticky. And there was enough to ski on but not too much to slow one down as I had to break trail.
In the summer water also flows over the top.
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| Running Eagle Falls |
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| Spot Mountain |
The view to the valley that leads to Pitamakan Pass.
Rising Wolf Mountain is on the left and Spot Mountain is on the right.
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| The road looks more level that it actually is. |
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| This mountain is the location of the trail to Scenic Point. |
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| The campground is Full?!!! |
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| Rising Wolf Mountain. |
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| Two Medicine Lake and Sinopah Mountain. |
The wind wasn't too bad and probably was blowing only 10 to 15 mph. At times we were completely sheltered from the wind. At Two Medicine Lake we felt the wind's cold bite as we ate our lunches.
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| Sinopah Mountain |
Skiing back to the car we had the wind at our back - and that was nice.
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