Glacier National Park - Going to the Sun Road

Today the plan was to go from the west entrance to the east entrance along the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier, and that is what we did.  It is hard to find the words for that which we saw.  Even though they are working along the road near the summit just before Logan's Pass, the wait that we experienced was totally forgotten due to the views we had, the pictures we were able to take because there was not any pullouts there, so as we stopped, we could snap our lives away, and for the people we ran into, including the former provost of the University of Pacific, which is located in Stockton California, about 30 miles south of my native hometown of Sacramento.

Since words cannot tell the story, I will let the pictures we took tell it...with little commentary.

 You can't go far down the road before you start seeing the mountains...

And Lake McDonald runs along the first portion of the trip along the left side (remember, we are heading eastwardly)

 ...and McDonald Creek takes over when the Lake disappears.

 Yes, every mountain peak has a name...but I am not going to even try to identify them...

 ...we just enjoyed the view, and enjoyed the view, and enjoyed the view.

There was a tunnel or two, and many pullouts, however some pullouts were being worked on due to the road construction.

 At times the road got narrow...real narrow in a few places

 ..and many little waterfalls and streams ran under, and at times over, the road.

 But those views just kept coming...

 We saw many waterfalls, and many little streams....

 ...and like I said, some of them were up close and personal with the road and the cars.

 And did I mention how....

 ....the views just kept coming and coming?

 We did hit the major construction area which had us stop twice for perhaps up to 20 minutes.

 But we did not have to worry about oncoming traffic once we did start going....

 ....and the views just kept coming and coming and.....

We finally made it to Logan's Pass, where there was a rest area, a large crowd, and thank goodness, an ada parking place right at the bathrooms.....and just 1/4 mile further down the road, we found our place to eat.

But we had to deal with the views again as we ate from our car...

 ...we even have a make-shift table to make our PB&J sandwiches on...

 ....and we had to deal with our own little crowd in the back, one of whom (Skruffy, of course) has to try and stick her nose into it to try and get a free snack.

And, of course, there is that view again.....the one out the front (above) and the one out the back (below).

Now the summit is about 2/3rds of the way from the west entrance to the east entrance.  So we still had some more of those views to put up with....

And those views....hey, wait a minute, who invited Skruffy in on the action?  Well, like we have done before, the little girl has to get in on the action now and then....

 But those views....

 ....they did not stop.

 And as we got close to the east entrance, we came upon Saint Mary Lake.

The bad part now...we had to turn around and see it all going the other way!  (tears, tears, cry, cry, cry!)

This time the parking lot was not as busy at Logan's Pass, so I decided to try and see if I could find some of the famed Mountain Goats that are around the pass.

 "Where are the Goats?" I asked..."Take that pathway to that mountain, you are bound to see them...

A very young girl assures me, as I walk along, that she saw 6 goats with her mom..."just go to the snowy area", she says.   But I am over half way to the mountain, alone because there is no way the GoGo could go up the many stairs, and I ask someone else.  "Have you seen the goats?"  "No," she says, "although this little girl said that her and her mom...."   Well, you don't need to go any further...and I definitely wasn't going any further...I sat and rested and got the above and below shot.   

Just as I was getting ready to go, I see a ranger walk by, he stops and looks behind me.  I turn, and what do I see?  Not a goat, not a deer, not an elk, not a bear....but it was a Marmot.  The ranger tells someone, "Yep, that little guy comes out 3-4 time each day...."  The arrow, in the picture below, shows the "big game" picture of the day....

Another thing I heard was that a Grizzly Bear was on the loose about 2 miles further.  They had closed the pathway about a mile away due to "hazardous conditions".  Yep, I guess a Grizzly makes it a hazardous condition.

Needless to say, we really enjoyed our drive....the scenery is fantastic, and we plan to drive it again later in the week, but leaving much early...perhaps around 6 am.

I do want to leave you with three panoramic picture views that I spliced together....

And if you think we enjoyed the day.....well, Bubba below says it all....

 FINALLY!  They let me out of that small car and I am back on grass again! 

Glacier National Park after Church in Whitefish

Today we went to church at the Calvary Chapel Whitefish church in Whitefish, Montana.  There are a few Calvary Chapels within 20 miles or so from where we are, but this one was also next to the Walmart that we planned to shop at yesterday, but decided to go to Walmart after church on Sunday.

Church in Whitefish was wonderful.  The music worship portion was very good.  The members were very friendly, and they mentioned that there were many "visitors" today, but we have no idea how many that represents.  My guess is that perhaps 1/3 of those in attendance.  Amazingly, they had a pot luck after church out on the lawn, and all were encouraged to come even if you did not know about it and/or did not bring something to share.  We passed on that, but we were both impressed with the meeting, the message, and the spirit of those who were there.

We them traveled to Kalispell where we found an Applebee's to eat at before we headed across the street to Walmart.  We typically don't eat at these chain type of restaurants, but Applebee's is a bit different for us since that is where we had our first meal together when we first met in Memphis back in early 2011.  It reminds us that we have come a long way since then, and in a sense, we have a long (travel-wise) way to go.

On another note, we talked about having problems getting on the wireless in Portland, and we had the same troubles here at this park.  I did some research, and found that with Windows 7, some wireless routers have a problem getting the IP address when they connect to the wireless router.  The fix is updating your driver for the computer's wireless device.

After we got home we first had to quiet little Skruffy down, who barked a bit while we were gone, according to our neighbors.  Bubba was happy too....don't know if it was seeing us, or because he finally got some peace and quiet.  Marcia got the Walmart stuff put away while I got our computers wireless devices updated, which did fix the problem by-the-way, and then we headed to the west entrance to Glacier National Park -- with the dogs (which I am sure put a smile on our neighbor's face).  

It was so busy at the Apgar Visitor Center area, that we decided that the map and information they give you at the gate will be enough for us.  We are saving the "Going-to-the-Sun" road for tomorrow, so today we went north from the Apgar area along the Camas Road.  The first 11 miles or so is a good paved road, then you either head north or head west after you leave the park, but both roads are dirt roads.  We turned back.  But we did get a few pictures to share....

Back in 2003 there were a number of fires at Glacier.  The larges, the Robert Fire, burned 39,000 acres within the park, and another 13,700 outside of the park.  In the picture above, the Robert Fire is shown by the grey arrow.  The road we took today runs right through the fire area for about 5 out of the 11 miles we drove.  The fires of 2003 reportedly burned 10% of the park.

The road did not stop the fires...didn't even slow it down.

Below the lack of trees has opened up a view of the high mountains on the other side of where thick trees once stood.

 Above is a view to the north...Canada is up there just past the peaks of these mountains.

The fires don't burn everything within the fire area, as seen in the picture above.  Below is a picture of some trees which we drove through after the fire area, and within 1/2 mile, we were again surrounded by burned trees.

At the end of the paved road one of the dirt roads heads west through this canyon, and then turns to the southwest and eventually turns back into a paved road and leads to Columbia Falls, although another dirt road turns south to head back to Highway 2 just above Coram where we are staying.  However, as I said before, we turned around and headed back.

Above are the mountains to the north at the end of the paved road, while below is a view of Lake McDonald and the mountains we will be seeing better tomorrow.  The Going-to-the-Sun road is just on the other side of the lake and runs the length of the lake on that side.

We did not see any wildlife today, and we hope to see some tomorrow.  One morning we hope to get up real early and head into Glacier because that, we are told, is the best time to see wildlife during the busy summer months.  Just as long as we don't get too close to one them there Grizzlies....