Iceberg Lake

We used to go to Canada in odd numbered years to visit my wife's parents, and they would come to our house in the even years. Since her father was diagnosed with cancer, though, their trip to see us has had to be canceled indefinitely. We don't want to go a year without seeing them. So, instead, we now go to Canada every year.

Grandpa has spent a lot of time on chemotherapy in the last months, so even though we want to be there to visit him, we don't want to constantly be there and wear him out. We spent time during the day shopping in town. The Bargain Shop on Main Street always has good deals on Canada souvenirs. I realized finally that it must be because Canada Day is usually a week or so before we visit. It must be the leftovers, like all the stores in the USA overflowing with America shirts right after the 4th of July.>p>We also took a day to go down to Glacier National Park, and go for a hike. Well, some of us did. I took the older two kids with me for a hike anyway. My wife and the younger kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.

Last year, when we went to Glacier, we were somewhat limited with the hikes we could take. We had a three-year-old with us, and he could only be expected to walk so far. So, even though the hike to Iceberg Lake was one of the things I wanted to do the most, we had to skip it, because it was a nine mile round trip.

But this time, he stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house with Mommy, so we could go as far as we thought we could handle...which would probably turn out to be a few miles farther than we actually could handle, but what are you gonna do?

It was a gorgeous hike, filled with beautiful vistas, loads of wildflowers, and water everywhere. Snow runoff streams came down the mountain at about ten foot intervals, and there were also waterfalls and lakes along the way too. The vegetation was lush and overgrown anywhere there was water.

My oldest son really loves hiking, camping, and being out in nature. He just recently got a new phone, and wanted to use it to get some cool pictures. He has a new phone, because he accidentally forgot to take it out of his pocket before going swimming with his cousins this summer. Here's a picture he took with his brand new phone:

Yeah, it's blurry and weird, but that's his phone snapping a shot as it fell into a stream. He wanted a picture of one of those overgrown spots where the snowmelt flowed down the mountain. But he thought it would be much cooler if he used a selfie stick to get his phone in underneath the foliage and the flowers. For some reason, his phone didn't fit the selfie stick as well as mine does, so the moment he stood up and tried to remove his camera from beneath the plants, it fell off the stick and dropped into the stream. He freaked out, images going through his mind of what life would be like without any phone at all once his parents said that two phones into the water is all he gets, and snatched that thing out as fast as he could. He dried it off, and luckily, there was no damage to it at all.

Check out this hornet's nest we found along the trail

Yikes! Who would be dumb enough to try to get a picture of that?

That last picture was one of the lakes that you pass on your way to Iceberg Lake. It was absolutely beautiful. There's nothing that I like more than a mountain lake. Many things I like evenly, right at the same level, but nothing I like more.

Anyway, we made it to Iceberg Lake, and it was truly everything we had hoped.

I don't think I mentioned this yet, but the reason that it is called Iceberg Lake is because it's up so high in the mountains that the snow never quite melts off its surface. It gets close. The snow turns into icebergs and floats on the lake, but they stay there all summer.

It was very, very beautiful. It was also very, very cold. Here it is in the middle of July, and we had to hurry up and get our sweaters on despite the fact that it was a clear blue sky. The wind rushes down the cliffs around the lake, and brings all the cold air from the as yet unmelted ice straight across the water and into your face. We survived though.

Sadly, the hike back was as long as the hike in. Weird how that happens, right? My son was tottering the whole way, complaining that his ankle was tired and hurting. He was afraid he might lose the battle and twist it at some point. He did fine though. I was the one who twisted his ankle. I just wasn't watching where I was going, and stepped wrong on a rock that was jutting out of the path. Luckily, it wasn't far to the end at this point, and I also didn't turn it too bad. I was able to walk carefully down the rest of the path without much pain.

On our way out of the park, we stopped to get some pictures of the fields of wildflowers that were blooming everywhere. This is really the only good one I came away with, however.

The fields looked amazing in the early morning light on our way in, and I made a mental note to stop on the way out and get pictures. But, on the way out, the light had changed significantly. It was no longer a soft, early-morning gold. Now it was harsh, overhead, and glaring. It made me sad that I hadn't stopped before. Always stop and smell the flowers, folks. We have one life to live, and it's short. Always take the opportunities that it presents you with.