It is still high season so park entry between 6AM and 3 PM is by daily permit only.  We can’t get one so, we will spend the middle of the day outside the permit gate in the St. Mary’s area.   We start with Beaver Pond loop trail.  There are lots of grizzly bear warning signs at the trailhead.  Kent is dutifully carrying bear spray but they all must to be off exploring other areas today.  We do see a mule deer and Ruddy duck.  It is a nice wooded walk with lake and mountain views.  Clouds are building as we head back to camp.  We make a quick stop enroute at Two Sister’s Café: huckleberry pie and a cinnamon roll.  We enjoy them both but not sure if the huckleberry pie/any huckleberry pie is worth $9.95 a slice!  Of course, I didn’t have to compete with the bears to pick those huckleberries.

It is Star Party night at Logan Pass

We picked up a ticket yesterday but have our doubts, it clouded over mid-day and has rained off and on all afternoon.  We make the call.  We are heading up to the pass and hoping for clear skies by 10PM.

It is still pretty grey when we get there but its only 7PM and we are off on a hike to Hidden Lake overlook.  Weather is just fine for this.  Wow, there are a lot of steps on this boardwalk that takes us up and across a wide rolling alpine meadow.  We have beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and hope to make it to the lake for sunset.  The boardwalk gives way to a more gently sloping path and ultimately to a perfect viewing platform high above Hidden Lake.  The shadows of lingering clouds move across the lake and mountain slopes that encircle it.  We wait, us and another 10+ photographers, for what all hope is a spectacular sunset.  Turns out it is just beautiful, not spectacular, still well worth the climb up here.  Bonus, on the way back down the trail we spot a mountain goat. He isn’t at all shy.  Kent gets a pile of pictures.

We make it back to the trailhead just above the visitor center (the star party is in that completely unlighted parking lot) and spend a few in the truck warming up.  It is 51F and we want to be well warmed before the program starts.  Soon it is 10PM and a crowd of somewhere around 200, gathers.  First there is a brief Glacier Dark Sky Park commercial then a wonderfully run Dark Sky Program.  Four astronomers split the group into smaller groups to walk us through constellations, the spectacular milky way and each their own personal take on why night sky is significant to humans and wildlife.  My spokesperson is a young astrophysicist turn geologist and astronomer turned park ranger.   Her’s is a fun, informative talk.  Next, there are seven telescopes set up each trained on a different object in the sky.  Lines are pretty long as we wait for our look at a binary star, one red one blue, in constellation Cygna.  We then opt to find a quiet dark spot to just soak in the big picture of what has turned out to be one of the most magnificent night skies we have experienced.   We duck into the truck to warm up again, it is in the 40s heading for 37 by the time we head back down the mountain.  Very well done, Glacier National Park/Waterton-Glacier International Night Sky Park.