Sunrise over Lost Goose Island (click to enlarge)
Here is my take on the iconic image from Glacier National Park. Sunrise at Wild Goose Island is the image taken by every photo tour group at Glacier National Park. There is an overlook beside Going to the Sun Highway that provides a great view of the island and Saint Mary Lake.
I recommend visiting this overlook during the day and looking at various compositions to determine where you would like to set your tripod for sunrise. Should there be a photo tour group in the area, they set up at the top of the overlook in a tight group. It is slightly humourous to see 10-15 photographers crammed together taking identical images.
Based on my scouting the overlook area the day prior, I setup to the left and slightly down from where the photo tours set up their tripods. As the sun rose, I moved around to other spots I had looked at the day prior.
I arrived well before sunrise. The photo tours seem to arrive 30 minutes or so before sunrise. So if you want that spot at the top of the overlook where the photo tours normally gather, get there early!
My wife and I stayed just outside the park in West Glacier. My wife chose to drive that morning, departing about 0330. It was a very dark drive, and not for the faint of heart. Don’t think about the drop-offs just over those stone walls.
This would also be a good daytime image if there were clouds in the sky. Too bad for me, there was not a cloud in the sky during my daylight visit to the overlook.
Wild Goose Island Overlook: N48 41 30.15 W113 31 53.44
Highline Trail Panorama, Glacier National Park (click to enlarge)
I took this image at one end of the Highline Trail at Glacier National Park. This end of the trail is at the Logan Pass Visitor Center in the heart of Glacier National Park. This image is a panorama composed of three different images. The original size is about 40 inches wide by 13 inches tall. The Photoshop psd file is a whopping 378mb.
The road in the center of the image is the Going to the Sun Highway. The highway runs along the high ground and into the valley on the left side of the image. The Highline Trail essentially parallels the highway and ends at “The Loop”, a prominent section of the highway.
There is a small parking lot at the left end of the visible section of the road. This has a great overlook of the valley frequented by mountain goats. This parking lot is a short walk to the Logan Pass Visitor Center in case the visitor center parking lot is full.
One end of the Highline Trail: N48 41 50.80 W113 43 08.91
Hidden Lake Overview, Glacier National Park (click to enlarge)
Here is the view from the Hidden Lake overlook at Glacier National Park. The hike to the overlook is about 2.7 miles round trip from the Logan Pass Visitor Center.
The hike itself is not the least bit strenuous. The first part is a boardwalk through an alpine meadow. This scenic section is chock full of wide open panorama landscapes. You can continue down from the overlook to Hidden Lake itself. The trail goes along the right side of the image to the far right side of the lake. Going down to the lake doubles the mileage, and also the elevation gain. Easy to get down, much tougher to get back up!
We saw several mountain goats along the trail. The first one we saw looked like a stuffed display standing by the side of the trail. The goat did not move as we approached and eventually walked by it. In another area two mountain goats walked within 10 yards of where we were standing.
One word of advice, get to the Logan Pass Visitor Center early! We arrived in the parking lot around 0700 and it was filling up. We returned to the parking lot around 1100 and it was packed with cars continuously circling looking for parking. Shortly afterwards park rangers closed the parking lot completely. Evidently rangers periodically close the parking lot to let traffic thin out. We saw the same thing happen in Yellowstone National Park (I will post images from that trip later).
Hidden Lake Overlook N48 41 14.02 W113 44 29.72
