Rex Trulove
Here is the same image of the middle fork of the Flathead River in late May. It is within a couple of feet from flood stage, due to melting snow. This is also after almost a week of temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s (F).
Most of the snow that remains in the higher elevations is icy and slow melting, but there is a lot of it and when the temperatures get this hot, the ice recedes rather rapidly, flowing down to rivers and creating numerous waterfalls in the mountains. Later in the year, the waterfalls will be dried up, for the most part, until next year.
All of the images in this set is quite a transition over just five months, wouldn’t you say? Needless-to-say, this is the beginning of the tourist season for Glacier National Park.
