On Saturday, we got to Glacier in the early afternoon and decided to go to the Ranger station to get our permit. Along the route to the ranger station, we stopped to take in a few of the tourist shots.

Thought this was a neat picture of a bowl within the mountain. Surely there is an awesome snow pack or glacier fed lake at the bottom of that bowl.

The rock formations and colors throughout the park were really awesome. In the coming pictures you will notice the different types of rock that create the mountains. Later in our trip we walked through a 7 mile burn out area, so you don't really appreciate the greenery until you see the burn outs.

Our first day is a 9 mile hike that is mostly an unceasing ascent through heavy forest. As we come within 2/10ths of a mile from the chalet this little marmot crosses our path and decides to pose for us. I think that Glacier offers posing classes for the animals as you will see in coming pictures, they put themselves in perfect spots for pictures.

As we continue to ascend above the Sperry Chalets, we spot this beautiful looking lake. Unfortunately, the first couple of days in Glacier we had the wildfire smoke to contend with, so you don't get to see too much in the distance.

Here is a look down at the Chalets. On days without all the smoke, these chalets had some really awesome views out to Lake McDonald, our starting point for this trip.

Just as we top out our ascent for the day and head down to Lake Ellen Wilson for the night, I thought this was a neat picture for multiple of reasons. One the mountainous terrain and snowpacks, but notice how the trail just looks like it just falls off on this turn. After we make the turn we get a great view of the lake and our pass for the next day, Gunsight Pass.

I was attempting to provide an idea how steep the cliffs are in this area. We are making our way to Lake Ellen Wilson and the lake is just to the left of the picture, so you can be assured the outlet to the lake was creating quite a waterfall.

As you can see here and in future pictures, there was plenty of snow still around. Not sure how, considering they were having record high days during the week we were there. Of course, hot to them is the 80's. It was a little warmer then we wanted hauling our 50lb packs around. Also, in this picture you can see our trail leading to the lake.

I guess it is a good sign that I am still smiling at the end of our first day of 7 miles of climbing with a full pack. Behind me is Gunsight Pass, our destination the next day and Lake Ellen Wilson.

It is completely amazing the blue these glacier fed lakes display. This is looking down at the foot of the lake where the terrain just drops from here.

Ok, so I think this lake is beautiful. Maybe it is because it is the first one that we have come across. Our camping spot for the night in the middle of the picture on the left side. I think this picture also gives you an idea of the steepness we will have to climb to the pass.

Few of the snowpacks that are feeding the lake. At the far end, there is a waterfall feeding the lake as well. Tomorrow we get to climb through the waterfall and find the source of that waterfall.

Just awesome and majestic moutnains. We will have this type of view for the next 6 days. Gunsight Pass is located in the depression between the mountains. Lake Ellen Wilson at the bottom of the picture.

On our way down to Lake Ellen Wilson, This snowpack was draining into the lake and creating a neat little waterfall. At camp we find ourselves washing and filtering water from the stream this snowpack creates.

Campsite 1! As you can see we are nothing compared to these majestic mountains. This night was a pretty warm night, so we ended up pushing the flys down and basically sleeping under the stars. With no humidity we never had condensation in the tents, which made it really easy to pack up in the mornings and not worry about drying everything out.

This was taking at dusk on the first night looking across Lake Ellen Wilson. One thing that was persistent throughout the trip was wind. It was always blowing, but at this point we had a small break.

The sun began disappearing on our first day. It is always neat to watch the progression of the sun going down and coming up on the peaks when you are in these parks. Sure seems like it goes down faster then coming back up in the mornings. Maybe it is just me wishing to get warmed up by the sun quicker.

Ok, here ya go. Did this Mountain Goat really just climb up on that rock and give me a pose or what. Perfect shot!

As we were packing up the camp site on our second day we had 5 or 6 Mountain Goats just roaming around our sites. This little guy was following mom around and eventually lost her. That was not a good thing. This little guy was screaming bloody murder and running all throughout our site looking for its mom.

This is typical, mom getting serious and find food while the kid is bouncing around on the rocks having a good ole time.

Then the kid realized mom had found something. Time to jump!

As we start our 1,000 ft climb to Gunsight Pass, we get a rare morning time look at a calm Lake Ellen Wilson.

As mentioned early, We have to hike through the waterfall that is feeding Lake Ellen Wilson. I think Tom is a little worried!

As we climbed up to the pass, this Marmot couldn't resist giving us a photo opportunity!

Looking back at Lake Ellen Wilson just one more time. These lake are so majestic first thing in the morning before the wind or harsh sun hit them.

Looking down at our campsite from the night before. See the huge boulder in the picture, that is where our kitchen was located while the campsite was down by the lake.

As we peaked out on the top of Gunsight Pass, we look back down at the Lake Ellen Wilson.

Looking up and to the side of the pass we see that we really have not climbed so high. Obviously, the sun does not hit this side of the pass for too long.

From Gunsight Pass, this is a look down at Gunsight Lake. We will walk down to the lake, have lunch and keep going on this day, but we are taking a nice long hour break on this pass. You can also see the smokey air. The prevailing winds brought in the smoke from the fires in southern Montana.