Did a cool three-day hike over the weekend which takes you to one of the nicest passes in the Park. Can you guess where it is? Hint; The wind blows so hard, the trail all but disappears.

I went out to a favorite meadow last night. The trailhead is clearly marked and pretty easy to get to, but almost no one goes there, probably because if you follow it clear to the end, takes you further and further into the middle of nowhere. Last night, however a woman pulled up and said she was going for a hike and when I first saw her rig I was perturbed that someone would dare hike my trail, but then I saw who it was and she's nice as heck so we exchanged pleasantries and I went on my way and she went hers. I didn't go far, just down the trail and then around the corner. The plan was simple: Sit there awhile and see what would happen, which is a course of action I take more and more often — because it works. On this evening a northern harrier was making sweeping runs across the grass, hunting voles. It pretty much stayed too far out for a photo, but about every half hour it would get just close enough for a decent picture. Not a bad way to blow a couple of hours in Glacier Park.

The west side of the Going to the Sun Road will close to vehicle traffic above Avalanche Creek Sept. 20, so crews can work on the road. Daily newspapers this morning ran headlines that said the "Sun Road to close in September," which was wrong. You can still get to Logan Pass until mid-October, you just have to come in from the east (St. Mary) side. It's one of the nicest drives on the planet, so I can't imagine too many folks will mind the extra miles. We're heading into the glory days of Glacier. September and October are spectacular months — my favorites (my other fav is April, believe it or not). I took this photo of a sunrise in the Bad Rock Canyon en route to Glacier the other day. Not too shabby a way to start the day.

PS — That surviving Old Man Lake bear still isn't in the Bronx Zoo. It's being held at a facility until they can find the right size cage for the critter. As I understand it it, one cage was too big, the other too small for air travel. We'll keep you posted. On the plus side, the Bronx Zoo is not a for-profit Zoo. It's run by the Wildlife Conservation Society, which is a leading world conservation organization.