Glacier National Park~ Two Medicine and Cobalt Lake- July 10, 2012

On Tuesday, July 10th we drove to Two Medicine.  I was amazed that we were able to just drive right to lower Two Medicine lake.  It was so beautiful.  Most of the other lakes we saw required some sort of a hike.

After checking out the lodge, we decided to hike to Cobalt Lake.  I think we picked it pretty much just based on the name, and the fact that we would pass by Rockwell falls on the way there.  I love Cobalt Blue.  In retrospect I sort of wish we had gone to Upper Two Medicine Lake instead since it is a much bigger lake, but that will be a journey for another day.

The hike to Cobalt Lake started easy enough.  We passed by several small ponds, one of which we saw a moose.  We went over a suspension bridge.

Richard crossing the suspension bridge

Here is a picture of Rockwell Falls.

The trial seemed to get very steep after that.  No, that's an understatement.  It seemed to go vertical on us.  In reality, the total elevation gain is 1450 feet and the roundtrip length is 11.2 miles.  It seemed much longer, but maybe it's because of the thin air in the high elevation (highest elevation is 6597 feet). We normally dwell at about sea level, so this was quite a change for us.  When we started seeing snow we knew we were up there.

Finally we got to Cobalt Lake.

It was a lot smaller I think than any of us were expecting after the long and strenuous hike, but we were the only people there.  We shared the lake with some crazy ground squirrels and lots of bugs.  The photo above is pretty much the scene I painted.  Here is the painting I did of Cobalt Lake.

While I was painting Richard took photos of me.

It is amazing to me that those 2 photos were taken on the same day, with me in the same exact place and just the photographer in different places.  That shows how quickly lighting conditions change, which definitely adds to the challenge of painting outdoors.

Luckily the hike down was a lot easier.  When we got back we all had a Coke.  Ah-- coca-cola never tasted so sweet!