Mt Aeneas, Picnic Lakes and wildflowers

Saturday, July 18, Patti, Linda and I hiked to the top of Mt Aeneas then to the Picnic Lakes, both in the Swan Mountain Range's Jewel Basin outside of Bigfork, MT.

We had an elevation gain of about 1811 ft.  Camp Misery is at 5717 ft and Mt. Aeneas is 7528 ft.

We hiked 6.7 miles.

Mt Aeneas is in the background center, as seen from near one of the Picnic Lakes.

It was good we got an early start as we got one of the few parking spots left at the Camp Misery parking lot.  A very large group (18!) of the Swan Rangers were there.  Patti, Linda and I were very glad they were taking a different trail than us.   Here is a link to their page.  They claimed to have broken into smaller groups.    One of their photos shows gaps between the people hiking.  I guess the gaps make it separate groups.,    http://www.swanrange.org/index.php/articles/blog/swan_rangers_hike_jewel_basin1/260


We reached the top of Mt Aeneas around 11 am.  We ate our lunches there then descended to Picnic Lakes where we saw several meadows of wildflowers. After spending a little time at the southern Picnic Lake we hiked up and over the ridge and back down to Patti's car.

A very nice day and hike.

Click on the photo/link to see 23 more photos from the hike:

Mt Aeneas - Picnic Lakes

I had hiked to the top of Mt Aeneas once before, back on June 1, 2007. Most everything was covered under snow then.

http://tallpineshiker.blogspot.com/2007/06/mt-aeneas.html

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Cracker Lake in June

On Saturday, June 20, Patti, Mary and I hiked to Cracker Lake in Glacier National Park.  This was the second time I have been to Cracker Lake.

Blue = driving route.   Red = trail.

It was a long day. Patti and Mary picked me up at 7:40 am and we didn't get back to my house until 10:40 pm.  The driving time was about two and a half hours one way.  We also ate at the Cattle Baron's Supper Club in Babb, MT and that took several hours as the service was very slow.  This was the first weekend the entire Going-to-the-Sun Road was open and the Supper Club underestimated the number of diners.  Patti and I ate here several years ago after a hike and really enjoyed the food.  This time... we were pretty disappointed in the food quality.  It will be along time before we eat here again.

 
The trail distance to the campground mid Cracker Lake was 6.1 miles.  I think the old copper mine at the head of the lake is another couple tenths of a mile.  Then I hiked up to Siyeh Glacier and a waterfall.  I estimate I hiked 6.6 miles one way, or a total of 13.2 miles.

I had only planned to hike to the copper mine and not beyond.  Patti and Mary had been to the mine on other trips so they stayed and relaxed on top of the large rock above the campground (the rock can be seen on left side of photo several photos below).  By the time I returned to the rock Patti and Mary were gone.  They had started hiking back to Patti's car.  I caught up to them as they waited halfway back at a stream crossing.  It was nice that I didn't have to hitchhike home.

Red = trail.   Orange = route I took in my hike to Siyeh Glacier and the nearby waterfall.

The elevation gain to the lake is about 1400 ft.  I climbed at least several hundred feet higher to reach the glacier and waterfall.

On the way to Cracker Lake, when driving on the Sun Road along McDonald Creek, we saw a bear cross the road.  It was already across the road and into the trees by the time I got my camera out and took this photo of the bear.

Cracker Lake.  The left red circle is where I hiked up the hill of loose rocks.  The right red circle is where I hiked to the waterfall.

View from the hill of loose rocks.

View from the waterfall.

Part of why it took so long for this blog post to be written is I took lots of photos.  It was hard for me to whittle the photos down to be less.  So I would wait awhile then come back and whittle some more.  I finally quit when I was down to 54 photos.  Also, I was almost done with the post when a glitch happened (somehow) and my entire post was deleted before I could publish it.  So this post had to be re-written from scratch.

For 54 more photos of the lake: https://picasaweb.google.com/109566462412251958234/CrackerLakeInJune2015?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCP2DvJTOouKLJw&feat=directlink

Video 1: water flowing below the waterfall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD6WJpULNaA

Video 2: waterfall: https://youtu.be/CIl1eHU_uD0

Video 3: waterfall: https://youtu.be/7vlrgd1-9r0

Video 4: waterfall: https://youtu.be/4LUIdVryCxk


Overview of the Cracker Lake trail: http://www.glacier-national-park-travel-guide.com/cracker-lake.html

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