Monday, August 24, 2009

August 10th Day two in Glacier National Park

Well, we had the best intentions to get an early start on the "Going-to-the Sun" road in Glacier but ended up not leaving camp until 9:00am. The "Going-to-the Sun" road spans about 50 miles and is the highlight drive within the park. We started at the east end, passing by beautiful (and choppy) Lake St. Mary and began the climb into the mountains. The scenery was truly spectacular, every turn brought a different, more breathtaking view of the mountain range and it's many wildflowers. As we were traveling east to west on the road we were hugging the side of the mountain (rock side, not drop side) so I wasn't concerned about how high we were getting and after about 18 miles of travel we made it to Logan Pass which has a visitor center, museum and a boardwalk trail which leads to unbelievable views . Located at 6,646 feet above sea level Logan Pass is along the Continental Divide, and is at the summit of Going-to-the Sun road. This is the highest point at which visitors can drive their vehicles and boy was it's parking lot full! We explored the visitor center / museum (I also got the Logan Pass / Glacier NP Passport stamp) and we then walked the boardwalk trail. Man was it ever cold on the boardwalk trail! And the wind was whipping to boot (burrr). As we walked the trail we saw a young deer grazing on wildflowers and a hoary marmot hanging out on a rock. I couldn't believe how many wildflowers there were, they were just everywhere! After our walk we continued on the "Going-to-the Sun" road stopping at the many turnouts to look for mountain goats, view the wildflowers and admire the snow fields that dotted the mountainsides. It was quite the pleasant drive and I said to Leon that the loop road here in Glacier was not nearly as scary as the loop road in Rocky Mountain National Park. We finished the east to west drive on the loop road right around lunch time so we had our picnic near the famous and historic Lake McDonald Lodge. After lunch we did a self tour of the lodge, what a beautiful place! I thought it to be even nicer than the lodge at Many Glacier. Though the Many Glacier Lodge has the best scenery. We completed our tour of the western section of Glacier National Park by visiting it's bookstore which is located outside of the park (which I thought was wicked weird) where I got my Lake McDonald and West Glacier Passport stamps. We then headed back to the "Going-to-the Sun" loop road, now traveling west to east. The drive was wicked scary as we were on the outside lane with sheer drop offs without guardrails! My knees were knocking together! I couldn't really enjoy the scenery as I was too terrified due to my big fear of heights. At long last we exited the loop road and we beat feet to get back to the Many Glacier section of the park so that I could get it's Passport stamp. We made it to the ranger station in the nick of time, they were about to lock the door when I ran in. I quickly stamped my book and exited the building and the rangers promptly locked the door behind me. To celebrate my getting the Many Glaciers Passport stamp Leon and I stopped at the lodge and had a couple of drinks before heading back to camp for dinner. After dinner we strolled through the campground loops and then retired early as we had a long tow ahead of us the next day.

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