Thursday & Friday, July 12th & 13th
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK
(also known as the Glacier/Waterton, Canada International Peace Park)
It's mostly going to be about the pictures which I'll include in a small format but you know you can enlarge them by double clicking on them.
A few notes about my 2 days there so far:
- I didn't drive the only road into the park - Going To The Sun - for a couple of reasons: I'm a chicken and afraid of heights and I knew I wouldn't see anything but the road if I did
- I took the free shuttle the first day to get an overview and then I did it again on the Red Bus
even though I knew what I was in for - oh mama mia - the road just hugs those cliffs and you look straight down but I wasn't going to miss it even though my fingers cramped up a few times
Vintage Red Bus(new brakes though) - in winter, snow at the top of the mountains can get up to 40 FEET deep, at the bottom several HUNDRED inches deep. It took until the end of June to clear this road and as you can see in the pictures, there's still lots of snow even though the temperatures beginning this week have been in the upper 80s and low 90s but dry.
- I camped in the park the first night which is sort of like Fish Creek with pesky flies. Ran out of propane so refrigerator didn't cool and generator stopped after 1/2 hr of a 2 hr. window to run it so no AC on a wind-less, sunny, rather warm late afternoon
- it doesn't get dark until well after 10 p.m.
- There are no snakes in Glacier
- There are: mt. lions, grizzly & black bears, big horn sheep, mountain goats, wolves, wolverines, coyotes and squirrels
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| Haystack Falls |
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| Stromatolites (?) Rock Only rock to give off oxygen |
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| Bird Woman Falls |
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| Down in the Valley |
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| Sue in Glacier National Park |
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| Weeping wall |
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| McDonald River Falls |
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| At the continental divide - 6646' Only 3 other places in the world where water flows 3 ways - east, west, north |
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| McDonald River Falls |
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| Still a lot of snow |
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| St. Mary Lake on East Side of Glacier with Wild Goose Island Glacier made |
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| McDonald Lake on West Side of Glacier 10 miles long, 1 1/2 miles wide 400' deep Glacier made |
DATA:
Mileage 22 Propane: $11 Camp: 1st night $10
2nd night $40
Red Bus: $50
P.S. Glacier/Waterton International Peace Park is working towards becoming designated as an International Dark Sky Park/Preserve. By 2025 they believe there will be no more dark skies to see the stars in the contiguous US due to light pollution. Pretty cool. Who would have thought to preserve the night!
I am so looking forward to seeing this in September. I won't be driving that road either since I heard about the shuttle...apparently some have done it in their RT tho.
ReplyDeleteI saw 3-4 RT on the road and later met one at the gas station and they said they wouldn't do it again - couldn't see the scenery and it was a bit scary. they had a 170 too - only 19' and they allow up to 21'
DeleteBTW, what does the Red Bus do that it costs $50? as opposed to the free shuttle?
ReplyDeleteThe shuttle is just transportation to the different campgrounds, lodge, Logan Pass, Sunset, etc. No narration, no stopping for picture taking unless you get off and wait for the next shuttle - 15-30 mins and then it might be already full. I felt I wanted more of a learning experience and wanted to stop at scenic places to get a better look & take pictures. It was expensive - that's why I only did the shortest tour - to Logan Pass but I'm glad I did.
DeleteThanks, that makes sense.
DeleteWow!! Amazing pictures!! So beautiful. Smart choice in doing the bus.
ReplyDeleteAre there really no snakes? How would they know that! Plenty of other critters to watch out for though.