Hiking in a Rain Forest.

I arrived at Glacier National Park on a cloudy afternoon.  Several days of rain followed.  The Going To The Sun Road remained closed due to heavy snow, but at lower elevations the rain and the melting snow had the rivers in flood.  I did some wandering, and a lot of ooh'ing and ahh'ing, but the scenery would not photograph well.

June 15, the day finally cleared a bit, and I went hiking along Avalanche Creek on the west side of the Park.

The entire west side is classed as Temperate Rain Forest because of the precipitation generated by the air rising to climb over the peaks.  The result is phenomenal colors, even with the overcast.  I last saw this kind of intense green on the west side of the Cascades, for the same reasons.

Avalanche Creek is a cascade that rushes from one precipitous drop to another.

What a great trail!

That afternoon, the sky began to clear.  I drove around the south end of the Park to get a sense of the east side.

These shots were near Two Medicine, my next camping destination, and the setting for my last post, on Running Eagle Falls.