mm mmm Moraine!

So I know that I open up most of these blogs saying that I've done so and so hike that's one of my favorites, and this one is no different. However, I also think that the hike up West Glacier Trail over the moraine to the glacier is one of the coolest things I've done in my life. Last year I did this hike as part of my adventure into the ice cave, which made for some amazing pictures:

Sadly, though the course of time, the ice cave collapsed a few weeks ago (luckily with nobody in it). I was interested in seeing what kind of collapse had happened, as well as getting out to see the glacier up close and enjoy the beautiful day it was. The moraine is good fun to hike over, and there was a pretty cool little beaver dam at the base of it:

This hike is a lot of fun because I got to mountain bike, hike, scramble, and even rock climb a bit, so all sorts of good times are had. The view ain't bad either :-)


There are also some birds nesting there, so I made sure to keep my distance, but still managed to get some good shots along the way:


After checking out the birds, I went down to where the ice cave used to be. This used to be where it exited down near the lake -- quite a change:

The next few are the area where the cavern used to be -- it seems a lot bigger when you look at the hole left behind compared to when you were in it (note how small the people are next to it):


The rest of these are just general 'eye candy' from around the glacier -- I can never get enough of that amazing blue color! I'll have to go back again before I leave :-)