Glacier
Park's mountains have often been referred to as the North American
Alps due to the sheer height and massive beauty of the rock
formations. Looking up, all I could see was rock, while looking
down-well that was another story! I felt like I was on top of
the world, as if I'd climbed up Jack's bean pole and peered
over, not a scenic lookout, but through the clouds.
Behind
me, a cold rush of water gurgled through the rocks, careening
over the band of asphalt to the green bottomless forests below-I
realized the source was snow from further up the mountain. Around
me, the air was thin at the high elevation, so I moved slowly.
Below me towering pine trees spread out with the minuscule perspective
of wild grass. A river rushed through, the sound lost in the
distance.
At
the Visitor's Center I stopped again to hike for a few hours,
finding wildflowers along the trail as well as wildlife. Mountain
goats halted to stare at me, seemingly unaffected by my intrusion.
A squirrel raced across my path, and then came to a stop a safe
distance away to watch me. Heaven's Peak soared overhead at
an elevation of 9100 feet, while the Garden Wall rose straight
out of the valley in a sheer rock mass beside me.
My
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park experience was unforgettable-surely
"Posterity will bless us"-as Canada's Minister of
the Interior, wrote in 1895, with the preservation of this natural
wonder.
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