We woke up to rain today, which is a blessing because of the forest fires in this Park. The Going-to-the-Sun road is still closed due to the Reynolds Creek fire. We decided to go to the Two Medicine Lake area of the Park in the southeastern section of the Park. All the way there it rained but when we arrived at the Lake the weather was beginning to improve, so I booked us on the 1pm tour boat of Two Medicine Lake. We were able to stay inside the lodge while we waited for the boat to keep warm eating our lunch. We boarded the tour boat called Sinapoh, which is the name of the prominent mountain that rises above Two Medicine Lake.
Our guide on the Sinapoh was very knowledgable, and we learned that the mountains of the Two Medicine area were known as the “Backbone of the World” to the Blackfeet Indians, who used the area for vision quests as well as hunting and gathering. From the boat we had awe-inspiring views of the towering spires and sheer cliff walls at the lake’s edge. Mount Sinopah stood out at the end of the Lake and Rising Wolf Mountain rises dramatically above the Two Medicine Lake to the south. The Blackfeet consider the Two Medicine region of the Park to be sacred ground and their name for this peak means “The way the wolf gets up”. This mountain is part of the Lewis Overthrust which is a geologic thrust fault structure of the Rocky Mountains unique to Glacier and Waterton National Parks. They are the oldest rocks in the Rocky Mt. A group from the boat walked with the guide to Twin Falls, passing through an area thick with ferns, thimbleberries and huckleberries. About 3/4 mile up the trail the 7620-foot Pumpbelly Pillar comes into view, the glacially carved, cone-shaped Rock is named after Raphael Pumpbelly, a leader of the Northern Transcontinental Railway Survey party in 1883. Click on thumbnail to view images
Twin Falls is a beautiful set of cascades flowing off the eastern slopes of Pumpbelly Pillar, and the two falls are approximately 50 feet apart. We stayed here for a short time climbing over the rocks and then left to hike back along the South Shore Trail back to the parking lot, hoping to see the family of moose that have been spotted here all summer. We didn’t have any moose sitings unfortunately, but it was a pleasant hike, we crossed a suspension bridge, and had views of Two Medicine Lake form the south shore.
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