Eastern Glacier in the Rain

Saturday, July 14th

I awoke to pitter patters on the roof so knew my day's plans were about to change.

No hike before I headed to the east side of Glacier NP.

Did eat breakfast at the campground:  waffle with real raspberry sauce.

Rain wasn't hard but low clouds so you couldn't see the tops of the mountains or else you could see the tops but not the mid section but it was ok, it made you focus on the immediate.

Stopped at Goat Lick Overlook and sure enough there were mountain goats on the other side of the gorge (seen through binoculars) licking the rock wall (there's salt in them thar hills).  Fun little break in the cool mist.

Stopped at Marias Pass (discovered for the railroad, on Patrick's birthday a few years earlier - in 1889) in the Lewis and Clark National Forest which is on the continental divide.

The obelisk at Marias Pass is to T. Roosevelt for
his dedication to preserving the
National Forests & sits on the
Continental Divide

Then on to East Glacier.  I went inside the Glacier Park Lodge (built by the railroad to aid in the westward expansion) which had a marvelous lobby and front garden.

Inside the Glacier Park Lodge

Garden in front of Glacier Park Lodge

Two Medicine Lake

I went on to a very pretty Two Medicine Lake.  The rain stopped just about this time so I could walk the lake shore a bit and took these pictures.  The water is so clear and smooth - thus the great reflection.

Look how clear the water is
at Two Medicine Lake

Reflection at Two Medicine Lake

Had planned to stop at the Blackfeet Pow Wow outside the park but by the time I got back on the road, it was again raining pretty hard so drove on with Great Falls, MT as my destination.  

Almost as soon as you leave Glacier, the land flattens out and you're in prairie.  It's like those colliding plates that formed the Rockies got tired of pushing against each other and just stopped.

"After" Glacier in MT

Lots of grain, checker board fields, rolling hills, bumps and humps.  Pretty country side with few trees so you can see to the horizon.

(Town of Cut Bank - on Rt. 2 east of the park - neat murals and enlarged old photos on the sides of their buildings)

Staying in a KOA in Great Falls with 1000 kids, splash pools, family parties with all the cousins, bunnies and raspberries everywhere.  Rain had stopped by the time I got here and was actually quite warm.

DATA:

Gas:  $53  @ $3.40                   camp (for 2 nights)  $106

Goodness, Gracious, Gorgeous Glacier NP

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 

  

  Vintage Red Bus

  (new brakes though)

  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
• 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

Haystack Falls

Stromatolites (?) Rock
Only rock to give off oxygen

Bird Woman Falls

Down in the Valley

Sue in Glacier National Park

Weeping wall

McDonald River Falls

At the continental divide - 6646'
Only 3 other places in the world
where water flows 3 ways -
east, west, north

McDonald River Falls

Still a lot of snow

St. Mary Lake on East Side of Glacier
with Wild Goose Island
Glacier made

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!