Lake McDonald Excursion
Christine July 14th, 2007
We are home again from one of our micro-adventures. This is an evening shot of McDonald Lake in Glacier National Park where we put in our kayak on the shore off the Going-to-the-Sun Road. This is looking northeast. We didn’t intend to paddle as far as we truly did, but when we reached the other side of the lake where the great burn occurred around Belton Hills, (now three years ago) we were so enthralled by all the small coves and a tiny stream coming down from the mountain that we couldn’t stop. What is around the next bend? When we finally did turn around to paddle back to our put in point it was a long haul. Below is a map of our adventure. We calculated, with the help of Google Earth, that our trip was about nine miles total. It was a hot, hot day in the Park. There were plenty of locals enjoying the water in the intense afternoon sun. (Not just the tourists from out of state enjoy Glacier, although sometimes it seems as if the businesses surrounding the Park are completely fixated on that transient tourist dollar, so in the summer all the prices in western Montana go sky high.)
The sun was relentless as we paddled across the Lake. Luckily we were able to find a private nook, get out of the boat and take a swim as there are no roads on that side of the lake. Other than one of the tour boats from Lake McDonald Lodge, which thankfully took no notice of us, we had a fairly uninterrupted swim. We could hear clearly across the lake what the tour guide was saying to the passengers in his Spiel about geological formations and glacier silt. This lake is normally icy cold, fed by deep springs and mountain snow. Our dip was the first time I remember ever really enjoying being submerged in Glacier water. In paddling along the shore, which is narrow and rocky, the beach shelf ends abruptly dropping immediately into deep water. We spied several native trout and one swam just ahead of us for quite some way before it tired of our intrusion and headed for deeper parts. The water was like glass and only after a few feet out we found immediate kayaking serenity, marred only occasionally by the usual stink pots (motor boats).
Technorati Tags: Glacier Park, Lake McDonald, kayak, quiet water
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Awesome. This looks to have been quite the adventure!
Sounds like a fun trip. What a beautiful area. The same sort of summer madness happens along the Maine coast. Prices go up, and traffic slows to a crawl.
I figured you were gone paddling when you didn’t post for a couple of days!
lol, like the nickname of stinkpots for them.