Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Sperry Chalet and Sperry Glacier, Glacier National Park



Enjoy the pictures first and then the description







Feather Woman Falls




Sperry Glacier


Meg and I enjoyed an exceptional two day stay at the Sperry Chalet, nestled in a glacial cirque, 6.7 miles and 3200 feet above Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park. Here is 
a description from the Chalet's website:
"Sperry Chalet was built in 1913 by James J. and son Louis Hill of the Great Northern Railway, the prime developer of Glacier National Park. Listed as an Historic Landmark, these rustic buildings, built of native rock, have survived their rugged environment relatively unchanged for over 90 years.

"Opened in 1914 the main buildings consist of a two story hotel building and a kitchen/dining room building. A maintenance building and a new restroom building are located between hotel and dining room buildings. Other than a modernized kitchen and the new composting restroom facility, the interiors and exteriors are much as they were built. It is a short 400 foot stroll between the dining room and the hotel building. The private guest rooms are without lights, heat or water. Flashlights are used at night as no candles or fueled lights are allowed. The dining room has a wood stove and propane lights for your comfort."

The stay was like putting on a completely different persona. Far from the crowds, we relaxed in the quiet and gentle breezes (and noisy, active mosquitoes :)  Waterfalls plummeted off in the distance, sharp peaks created a shangri-la environment, and we enjoyed letting the responsibilities of home slip away.

We reveled in the most spectacular day hike we have made in all our years of hiking and backpacking.  The four and half mile trail to the Sperry Glacier rose through six levels of colorful rock and water. The geologic forces that shaped these levels of metamorphic rock and mudstone invited the eye to admire both the symmetry and the discontinuity of the layers, as well as the water that flowed from all heights and angles. 


2 comments:

  1. it is so beautiful, i wish i had change to be there!haha...experiecing the quietness, feeling of peace and happyness. Chinese people are very much interested to live a hermit life, your experieces recalled me a famous chinese poet back to 1500 years ago called Taoyuanming, the man was alone traveling somewhere and accidently found a place of heaven, and take the travel notes which gets published haha...afterward people follow what he wrote to look for the place but the place seems disappeared, overall the story is quite like shangri-la, i hope i am not talking too much.

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  2. I was fortunate to have this time in a remote part of Sichuan Province as part of a dental hygiene NGO (I was merely logistics) Sadly, China is changing fast, and these niches are vanishing. Thanks for sharing the poet story. The relationship with God is a life long journey.

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