Mount Siyeh August 22, 2018 Glacier National Park

So today didn't go as planned, but that was a good thing.  We've been having a fair amount of smoke in the air from all the forest fires raging in B.C. and one in Glacier National Park.  As a result I have been less that excited about hiking but since it was Wednesday and I had the day off my son and I decided to go anyways.  So we had planned on going up to Waterton and hoped it would be clear up there but upon waking I checked the webcams and the Many Glacier area looked the most clear.  So we drove up and on the way we stopped at Cardston and re-checked the websites and again Waterton was completely socked in, so I decided lets go to Glacier and why not try Siyeh.  It was one of the 10,000's that I hadn't done yet and I was hoping to reserve this one for a nice clear day because they say the views are great from this summit.  So anyways we headed up the Going to the sun road and arrived at Siyeh bend and got out and it was so clear when we started.  We had thought we had won the jackpot!  So we headed up to what is called Preston Park which is where you go off trail from the Siyeh pass trail.  From there we took one of the drainage's up.  On the way down we took on further east, they both seemed similar.  We eventually got to the ridge that looked down on Many Glaciers area and noticed how clear that valley was as well from the smoke.  It was incredible how there was an inversion on the other side of the continental divide.  The smoke from the Howe Ridge fire was trapped in that valley across the way and the continental divide was keeping the smoke on that side.  It was a very pretty sight, but like all good things the view slowly got worse as the day progressed.  Eventually our clear skies were smoke filled and by the end we could barely see Siyeh from the road.  It was a great day and the inversion we saw was spectacular.

Beautiful clear sky to begin Siyeh on right

Almost at Preston Park looking up at Siyeh

There was frost on the plants, must have been cold the night before

First views of Piegan Glacier

This is where we headed up

Some smoke is filling the valley below at the Siyeh bend, the smoke must be coming over the opening at Logan Pass

Our first view into Many Glacier Valley withe the inversion in the distance

Amazing the contrast from smoke on the west of the continental divide to the clearness on the east

First view of the cliff from the Summit

Summit View with the inversion

Cracker Lake

More smoke so the south in the distance but kind of cool how it is only settled in the valleys and the peaks are all clear

View of Grinnell Lake and the Salamander Glacier above it

Summit Photo

Summit Cairn with inversion behind it

Carter on the sick cliff

Looking back at he drainage we came down

This is the trail to take to go up and down the mountain (off the Siyeh pass trail)

Compare this photo at our end with all the smoke to the first one of this entry and you can the how much the smoke changed in 7 hours.  You can barely see Siyeh in this picture on the right

Black bear we saw on the road on the way back

Track of Hike

Summit Video

Photo Sphere on Summit

Cliff Video on Summit