August 30

The forecast sheet posted in the Swiftcurrent Inn lobby read rain all day, with wind around 25 mph, gusting to 49 mph.  But if I am going to travel all this way to one of the gems in the NPS, a bit of moisture was not going to keep me off the trails.  The 4.0-mile roundtrip, 600-foot elevation, Redrock Falls trail would be a good start.  At the first stream crossing a juvenile moose was munching on leaves.  He was inclined to stay as hidden as possible, so no NatGeo photo fame for him.  A few hardy souls were going both ways on the trail.  Everyone was soaked.  Well, one can easily see why this geological feature is call Redrock Falls; the rock is red.  Not candy-apple Corvette red, more like Minnesota Gopher maroon red.  Plenty of rock outcroppings to climb on to get good photos of the scene, though it would be safer on a dry day.  After 20 minutes of perusing the area, I headed back to the inn.  The few, small puddles I had passed on the way to the falls were now many, larger puddles.  The center of the trail had become a small stream in most places due to the concavity of the narrow route (aka us humans have worn away the center more than the edges).  Thanks to gravity, water has an undeniable urge to flow along the path of least resistance.  And it just kept raining.

If you like barebones accommodations, the Swiftcurrent Inn is for you.  WiFi works sporadically in the lobby. I could only get out once for a phone call.  A single room is 9’x13’ (not including the small bathroom).  There is a restaurant which serves all three meals, and a small general store with quick food items and park merchandise.  But the price is lower than the grand Many Glacier Lodge, which is one mile down the road… you have a decision to make.

Nature kept up the downpour all day and into the night, with plenty of thunder announcing its presence from time to time.