Glacier National Park

 

 

70 miles west of Shelby, Montana is Glacier National Park. The drive getting there was flat and boring but we were rewarded upon our arrival with amazing snow covered mountains, tall pine trees and the smell of the forest that takes me back to my Girl Scout days.

First up was a visit to historic Glacier Lodge. The lodge was built in 1913 by the Glacier Park Company, a subsidiary of the Great Northern Railway. It was the first of a series of hotels built in and near Glacier National Park by the Great Northern to house visitors brought to the park by the railroad.

 
 

We had lunch at the lodge with a wonderful view of the mountains on a sunny day. One of the people we met at the lodge was a young man from Bulgaria. He had worked in Colorado last summer and had just arrived in Glacier a few days ago. He showed a video to us he took this morning outside his lodge of a grizzly bear wandering around the parking lot. Les had some Elk sausage, which was yummy. With a locally brewed beer, it was a great lunch.

 After lunch we drove up to St. Mary and took the Going-To-The-Sun road. On the way we came upon a pickup truck that had gone in a 6 foot ditch along the cliff. The front of the truck was pretty much destroyed. It was a good thing he went left when he wrecked, because the edge of the road on his right was about a 3000 foot drop. (No guard rail) We stopped and talked to the park ranger that was there, we offered our tow straps and to get the truck out of the ditch, but shortly thereafter the cavalry arrived and we moved along. We did not stop at the lodge in St. Mary, it seemed to be a step below the lodge at Glacier East. We stopped along the road and took a hike to this waterfall.
Yes, it was cold, 50 degrees (10 Celsius) and breezy. It was a really nice spot, with the little bridge. Funny to watch the people with no balance teeter across holding on to the cable for dear life. The bridge is at least 24" wide, so it was pretty entertaining.

Going-To-The-Sun road was only open for 13 miles today because there is still snow on the ground. The plowing crews have some significant work to do to get the whole 50 miles open. The snow up above where we stopped looks to be several feet deep according to the pics we saw.
The picture below is Nancy standing on an outlook over St Mary lake, which is almost 10 miles long and 289 feet deep.

The picture below is the Jackson Glacier.

The next 2 pictures below are of a waterfall in the side of a mountain we thought were interesting.

We are headed for the Canadian border in the morning, have to declare the shotgun we have with us. We will see how it goes and report on the activities.

Today we traveled 228 miles in 7 and 1/2 hours.