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October 5, 2009, a Monday
Glacier National Park (Many Glacier to St. Mary), Montana, USA
— Photographed Baring Creek Cascades
[You may view a map of Glacier National Park in PDF format.]
There was a solid cloud layer and it was 29°F (-2°C) when I got up. Had my normal breakfast. Turned the generator on at 8:00, the start of the morning "generator hours." "Umbrella Man" knocked on the door of the RV around 8:40 to let us know that we woke him up with our generator. (You may read more about "Umbrella Man" on my blog entry for October 3, 2009.) I apologized, said it was the official "generator hours," and said we'd be leaving later today. I suppose it was a typical snobbish RVer's answer. Processed images for a blog entry. Turned the generator off at 10:00, the end of the morning "generator hours." Prepped the RV to move. I went up on the roof of the RV and cleared off the inch or so (about 3cm) of snow from everything and some ice on the solar-electric panels. We left at 10:45 with me in the RV and J following in the Jeep.
There were some beautiful snow-covered trees on our drive out towards the park entrance. We exited the park at 11:07. It started sleeting at 11:11 as we were going by potential compositions along the evergreen-lined river.
We went back into Glacier National Park through the St. Mary entrance at 11:27. The ranger woman bent the rules a bit and let us use one pass for two vehicles. I'm glad we didn't have to hook up the Jeep to tow it through the entrance station.
We went to the St. Mary Campground and we were the only people there. We took Site C106 at 11:34. It's a great site with good solar-electric potential (when the sun's out) and Broadband Verizon wireless internet access. The sun was peeking out through the clouds and we were getting decent solar electricity, so I went up on the roof and tilted the solar-electric panels to get more solar electricity. By the time I was done, the gaps in the clouds had vanished and our solar-electricity had dropped way down. Because our house batteries were still low, we turned on the generator.
Had my normal lunch then processed some images. Turned off the generator at 1:20. Did some computer work. The clouds parted and we were getting lots of solar-electricity: 28A. We left at 4:32 in the Jeep.
We headed up towards Logan Pass. We turned around at 5:07 at the Gunsight Pass Trailhead because the road beyond was closed. :( The road had been open all the way to Logan Pass two days ago, so we were surprised that it was closed.
We stopped at Sunrift Gorge and I photographed the cascades just downstream of the road. When photographing cascades, it's usually important to have some solid object (a rock or the bank) in the frame to anchor the image and provide a sense of place — having just moving water usually doesn't work. In the image to the left, everything in the frame is covered by water, but the thin layer of water over the visible rocks lets enough of the rock show through to anchor the image.
We returned to the RV around 6:40, and there was at least one other site occupied. I downloaded images and did a quick edit while J prepared dinner.
Had dinner of chicken enchiladas with fresh guacamole. While everything was tasty, the avocados were a bit stringy.
I took advantage of our internet connection and made some online purchases: LavAzza Gran Filtro Dark Roast Whole Bean coffee and two 1TB Hitachi hard drives.
There was a solid cloud layer and it was 29°F (-2°C) when I got up. Had my normal breakfast. Turned the generator on at 8:00, the start of the morning "generator hours." "Umbrella Man" knocked on the door of the RV around 8:40 to let us know that we woke him up with our generator. (You may read more about "Umbrella Man" on my blog entry for October 3, 2009.) I apologized, said it was the official "generator hours," and said we'd be leaving later today. I suppose it was a typical snobbish RVer's answer. Processed images for a blog entry. Turned the generator off at 10:00, the end of the morning "generator hours." Prepped the RV to move. I went up on the roof of the RV and cleared off the inch or so (about 3cm) of snow from everything and some ice on the solar-electric panels. We left at 10:45 with me in the RV and J following in the Jeep.
There were some beautiful snow-covered trees on our drive out towards the park entrance. We exited the park at 11:07. It started sleeting at 11:11 as we were going by potential compositions along the evergreen-lined river.
We went back into Glacier National Park through the St. Mary entrance at 11:27. The ranger woman bent the rules a bit and let us use one pass for two vehicles. I'm glad we didn't have to hook up the Jeep to tow it through the entrance station.
We went to the St. Mary Campground and we were the only people there. We took Site C106 at 11:34. It's a great site with good solar-electric potential (when the sun's out) and Broadband Verizon wireless internet access. The sun was peeking out through the clouds and we were getting decent solar electricity, so I went up on the roof and tilted the solar-electric panels to get more solar electricity. By the time I was done, the gaps in the clouds had vanished and our solar-electricity had dropped way down. Because our house batteries were still low, we turned on the generator.
Had my normal lunch then processed some images. Turned off the generator at 1:20. Did some computer work. The clouds parted and we were getting lots of solar-electricity: 28A. We left at 4:32 in the Jeep.
We headed up towards Logan Pass. We turned around at 5:07 at the Gunsight Pass Trailhead because the road beyond was closed. :( The road had been open all the way to Logan Pass two days ago, so we were surprised that it was closed.
Baring Creek Cascade Detail
Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III, 100-400 (at 160mm),
polarizer, ND, 8 sec, f11, ISO 100
polarizer, ND, 8 sec, f11, ISO 100
We returned to the RV around 6:40, and there was at least one other site occupied. I downloaded images and did a quick edit while J prepared dinner.
Had dinner of chicken enchiladas with fresh guacamole. While everything was tasty, the avocados were a bit stringy.
I took advantage of our internet connection and made some online purchases: LavAzza Gran Filtro Dark Roast Whole Bean coffee and two 1TB Hitachi hard drives.