Some Solar Fun... great post Wandering His Wonders Eclipsing Our Last Day At Glacier Posted: 29 Aug 2017 08:28 AM PDT

Wandering His Wonders

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Eclipsing Our Last Day At Glacier Posted: 29 Aug 2017 08:28 AM PDT Our last day at Glacier National Park just happened to coincide with the solar eclipse. This area will see an 87% eclipse, but we found out that 100% of the eclipse glasses were sold out at our remote location. So we made a solar viewing box instead. It took us several prototypes to get the hole just right, but it really did show the changing shape of the sun when we looked through the viewing corner onto the white screen we taped to the bottom. (We just realized this picture looks like Denisa is very hungry, searching for the last pieces of cereal at the bottom of that box.) Mark took this picture of Denisa with the sun behind her, watching the sun become a crescent. We include it in the blog because somehow that crescent-shaped sun appeared on Denisa's cuff in the picture. We tried to take pictures of the sun, and got a few of photos of the slivers of the sun as the moon moved across it. We noticed the temperatures cooled in our campground during the maximum coverage. We got to see it clearly when some of our neighbors let us borrow their glasses, so it was a successful eclipse viewing at East Glacier. Once all the eclipse hoop-la was over, we made the short drive to our final Glacier National Park adventure. We had been checking out the kayaking possibilities, and decided the lake at the Two Medicine entrance would be great. So we inflated our trusty kayak, even though the wind had picked up and it was a little cool on the shore. Mountains surround the water, so it is beautiful place to be in the middle of Two Medicine Lake. With the wind in our face, we headed out on the lake. The waves were big enough that we found staying close to the shore was best. We also found that going slowly meant that less water lapped into the boat. Going slowly means that Denisa didn't have to row. This is turning out to be a great kayak trip! Besides that, the water is  perfectly clear. We could see the rocks at the bottom of the lake until it dropped off and the water got too deep. We were looking for wildlife along the shore, but the trees are so thick it would be hard for anything big to make its way to the water. We did find this interesting duck--a Merganser--keeping guard. She was guarding this fluffy group of pointy-beaked youngsters that were huddled together near the water. It's hard to get a perspective on just how big the mountains around us are. Those are forty foot pine trees along the water, and they look tiny at the foot of Rising Wolf Mountain. Another perspective of size for the mountains is the passenger boat that shuttles people the length of the lake. While that's a good way for most people to see the lake, we much prefer a ride in our kayak. As windy as it was on the east side of the lake, by the time we rowed to the west end the water was perfectly still. Instead of white-capping waves, we had reflections of the surrounding mountains on the glass-smooth water. Now with the wind at our back, it was an easy ride back to the shore. This is our last day at Glacier National Park, and these are our final views of the mountains we have come to love. With all the wild fires in Montana, we are also appreciating the blue skies that we have been blessed with here at East Glacier. We have enjoyed some beautiful skies here in Big Sky Country. This was a view over our campground at sunset. We're actually looking at the eastern sky, as the pinks and purples spilled over to light up the eastern horizon. It's been a great ten days on the east side of Glacier National Park, preceded by a fun ten days on the west side. But it's time to move down the road to new adventures tomorrow!