Tuesday, August 30, 2011

August 29,30 – Avalanche Creek and Lake Trail

Yesterday was a much needed day off. We slept in really late, got some groceries and just took it easy. We took a quick trip out to the Hungry Horse Dam but the visitor’s center just closed last week.

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We decided to take the free shuttle bus to our hike today. Therefore we could sleep in a bit and not have to rush to get there early to find a parking space. This is a very popular hike and it was quite busy.

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Near the start the creek rushes through this deep gorge of very red stone. The creek must run much deeper at times because the stone was polished and rounded out into these great curves very high above the current water level.

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We love to stare at the rushing water. Here Jennie is overcoming her fear of heights (very carefully) to get some pictures.

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This is a very popular spot for photographers. Everyone was perched on the edge jockeying for position.

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The trail runs in 2 miles to the lake, partly along the creek but mainly in the forest. At one point we came to this place where all the trees were knocked over and being cut up. We joked that they were finally giving us a view. Then we noticed that all the trees were pointing the same way and someone reminded us what the name of the place was. It had come from that hanging valley (in upper left in the picture below) across the creek valley. It must have been a big one because a lot of trees were down (all pointing uphill here).

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The view at Avalanche Lake. We had our lunch here. The views of the mountains were kind of hazy but still awesome.

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Three (that we could see) huge, long ribbon waterfalls fed the lake.

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Then we hiked 0.8 miles up the side of the lake for some different views.

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The view back to our lunch beach. Lots of people now.

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There was lots of staring upwards.

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At the end of the lake, one of the local wildlife asked if we wanted our picture taken together (another hiker).

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