The next day was a lazy morning. Everyone needed to sleep in while Dad was up early on working. We are going to have a difficult time adjusting to Eastern time when we get back home in a few weeks!
We headed out to a fun program called “Critters in the Creekâ€. It was a citizen science program on aquatic macro invertebrates. That means water insects. Many insects spend part of their time in their larval state as aquatic bugs. We were tasked with collecting and counting these critters to help determine the pollution tolerance of a river in Glacier NP.
After she instruction from Ranger Steve we were off tromping through icy cold water with buckets and nets in tow. We collected many samples in our allotted collection time.
Then came the hard part. We had to sort and count everything we collected. We found stonefly, caddisfly, mayfly and damselfly larvae. It was a lot of work to identify some as they were very very tiny.
It was a great experience and fun to learn about the research side of entomology.
We stopped at the Alberta visitors center (oddly located in West Glacier, Montana) to get some information for a trip to Waterton Lakes International Peace Park. They had a very interactive exhibit and we played for a while. We loved the bob sled!
In the evening we ventured out to the Lake McDonald Lodge and grabbed a yummy dinner before departing on a one hour boat tour around the lake. We learned about the history of the area and some fun stories. I think he highlight of the boat tour was an amazing vantage point for the Sprague Fire that was started by lightning last week. They are letting the fire burn with minimal interference. It isn’t a threat to people or major historical structures at the time. We watched as flames shot high into the sky on the ridge were the smoke was bellowing from.
