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
Abandoned truck at Montana’s Bannack State Park
Well, this might be the last post featuring an image from Bannack State Park. Given the relatively short amount of time I spent in the town, I am impressed with the number of quality images. I spent about two hours photographing the main town and another 40 minutes or so in the cemetery. After processing, I ended up with six solid images. I could easily spend an entire day, and well into the evening, at the park.
The lack of color in the park makes for strong black and white images. The various shades of brown of the dry vegetation and the weathered buildings make the conversion to black and white nicely. I used Google’s Silver Efex Pro to make the conversion to black and white. Silver Efex Pro is a great plug-in when used with Photoshop Creative Cloud. A few mouse clicks and some slider tweaks result in very nice black and white images. I have read several magazine articles and web tutorials on making the black and white conversion using Photoshop layers. Just my opinion, but none of they work as well as Silver Efex Pro, especially given the free price!
Abandoned Truck, Bannack State Park: N 45°9’43” W 112°59’47”
Abandoned Outhouse, Bannack State Park, Montana
Here is an abandoned outhouse on the north side of the street at Bannack State Park. Given the rattlesnake warning signs in the area, I had no desire to go any closer!
Besides the interior and exterior of the old buildings, Bannack State Park offers lots of free standing objects (a truck, outhouses, and ore carts among others) for photography. Include these objects in a wide panorama, or get close in for the detailed texture and patterns. Whichever way you prefer to photograph, there is a lot of photography to be done at Montana’s Bannack State Park.
Abandoned Outhouse: N 45°9’40” W 112°59’37”
