Siyeh Bend is a broad curve under Mount Siyeh, where high subalpine country gives way to east-side forest. The hikers' lot serves the long Piegan Pass and Siyeh Pass trails, and much of the road below it rides on a glacial moraine.
Coming down, the hikers' lot is on your side; climbing, you cross oncoming traffic to reach it, so only cross with a clear view. Mount Siyeh stands directly over you, with Going-to-the-Sun Mountain on one flank of this curve and Cataract and Piegan Mountains on the other. George Bird Grinnell named Mount Siyeh for a Blackfeet man. That name, in Blackfeet, means Crazy Dog, or Mad Wolf. Piegan Pass and Siyeh Pass start from the lot, and both are long days. This bend marks the change from high subalpine plants to the forests of the east side. Up toward the pass, small subalpine firs grow like flags, with their top branches on one side only, because the wind never stops. Most of the road from here down to the head of Saint Mary Lake rides on a lateral moraine, a bank of glacial debris plastered on the north wall of the Reynolds Creek valley. You're driving on what the ice dropped.
Photo: Terry Ott / Flickr · CC BY 2.0