Glacier National Park, Montana - September 2023
Spent two days hiking around Glacier National Park this past weekend and was completely blown away by all its geology, glacial history, and plant diversity. To my understanding, the the geology of Glacier has three main parts to its history. Many of the rocks you see in the park today are sedimentary, argillite, limestone, clay-stone, and some igneous rocks that are roughly 1 billion years old. Those older rocks were uplifted over younger rocks (70 m y/o) during the Lewis over-lift. During the last ice age (2 million - 12,000 y/o) massive glaciers ripped through the park exposing its geological history. Relatively, the landscape we know today is actually pretty young. It’s hard to grasp that the park was buried under thousands of feet of ice that slowly carved out the mountains. Some glacial lakes, like Whitefish, Avalanche, and Flathead lake, are excellent examples of the scale and impact of these glaciers. Today, the park’s iconic glaciers are just remnants of what they once were (even in the past 50 years). I added a few pictures of some of the glacially carved valleys, lakes, and mountains, that really help me put things into perspective. Many of the plant and tree species I saw reminded me of what I see in the Cascades. My favorite part was seeing all of the conifer diversity, Ponderosa Pines, Douglas Fir, Mountain Hemlock, Subalpine Fir, Pacific Yew, White-bark Pine, Engelmen’s Spruce, Noble Fir, and so many more. It was a really conifer wonderland! Not many wildflowers in bloom this late in the season, but I tried to capture as much as I could!
The last two days of our trip, we took a fly fishing trip down the Clark Fork river. Ponderosa pines and Western Red Cedars lined the sides of the river. Barely any tall shrubs or really any broadleaf trees besides the Rocky Mountain maple. We caught and released a few native Rocky Mountain whitefish and cutthroat trout. It’s been fun learning more about fish and just being out on the river in general.
St. Mary Lake
Grindelia squarrosa
Symphyotrichum falcatum
Glacial valley at Logan Pass
Phacelia hastata
Argillite shale
Eurybia conspicua
Eurybia conspicua
Ceonothus velutinus
Acer glabrum
Campanula rotundifolia
Melenoplus bivittatus - two striped grasshopper!
Dasiphora fruticosa
Antennaria aromatica
Gaillardia artista
Glacial sediments in the river
Spinulum annotinum - interrupted club moss
Oplopanax horridus
Lophocampa maculata - Spotted Tussock Moth
Sedum sp. thinking either stenopelatum or lanceolatum
Taxus brevifolia
Thuja plicata
Gymnocarpium dryopteris
Galium boreale
Castilleja miniata
Helenium autumnale
Helenium autumnale
Oncorhynchus clarkii - cutthroat trout
Prosopium williamsoni - Mountain whitefish
