Glacier National Park

Thursday July 28th - Continued
After our delicious breakfast(in a restaurant - a rare treat!), we were fully awake and ready to explore Glacier.  During the summer the main road cutting through the park, the  "Going-to-the-Sun-Road", is relatively free of snow and open for sightseers.  The road actually opened on July 13th this year, a record late opening due to all the snow they had.  We started on the road near the West Glacier Entrance in the morning and made lots of stops along the way to take in the beauty of the park.  We would have loved to do some day hikes, but our itinerary (and our tired bodies) just didn't allow it.  


Our first stops were along Lake McDonald.  Though it doesn't look that impressive on this map, keep in mind that that red line you see is actually 53 miles long.  Needless to say, it's all on a pretty grand scale.  

The park is actually called Glacier National Park due to the Glacial lakes, not due to the several glaciers  that have yet to melt on the peaks.  The park rangers did mention that the few glaciers that are left are melting so fast that they might all be gone in the next 10 years.  We were so glad to see a little bit of them before they're all gone! We also lucked out with a clear blue sky all day.  Glacier is truly the most beautiful of all the places we traveled to and other worldly in that it's pristineness.(if that were a word, it would fit Glacier perfectly)

Lake McDonald- Crystal Clear!

 The road also follows a snow fed creek most of the way on the West side.  We stopped several times  to marvel at the turquoise, clear water.

Feeling the cold water!

Avalanche ruins along the road.

As we continued higher up the road, the views of the majestic mountains just kept getting better.  The greens were really that green and the blue sky was really that blue.  It's hard to describe just how beautiful it is there.

Another snow fed creek 

The "Going-to-the-Sun-Road" was built in 1933 and with heavy snow fall each winter, it is damaged annually and in need of repair.  With the summer being the only time the road is open, the tourists and construction workers have to share the time on the road.  As a result, there were some sections of the road that were only open to traffic in one direction at a time.  Despite the inconvenience of waiting for traffic, we enjoyed the stop time to take pictures, and take in the beauty slowly.  

They were working on the road with Caterpillar equipment!

The line along the bottom third of the photo is the road.  They tried to make it blend into the scenery as best they could.  

By lunch time we made our way across the whole road in order to find a campsite at the Rising Sun Campground.  We found a decent site, set up camp and I immediately went to sleep for a while.  The sickness, bad sleep from sleeping in the car the night before and the early morning had taken their toll and all I wanted to do was sleep.  A few hours later I woke up and found Nate hiding in the car reading and trying to avoid the wind that had picked up in our campsite.  We anchored everything down and then made our way back up the road to take in some more views.  We sat with the binoculars trying to spot wildlife, as well as view the glacier better.   We also stopped to see the Sunrift Gorge and catch the view of St. Mary's Lake, another crystal clear glacier formed lake.

A view of Jackson Glacier off in the peaks.

A crooked picture taken by a stranger in front of St. Mary's Lake.

The Sunrift Gorge

What a view!

We parked the car along the road when Nate spotted a small lake hidden behind the trees.  Unfortunately, I fell asleep again, but Nate took the time to fish.  He caught a......

Cut-throat trout

 With all my sleeping, we were afraid I might have had a fever, but couldn't find the thermometer that I had packed.  We ended up driving all the way out of the park past St. Mary's visitor center trying to find either a thermometer or phone service to try to call someone.  We eventually found a thermometer at a small Indian Shop, as the park is on an Indian Reservation.  No fever which was good and we were able to call Castaway to move our Adult Guest Reservation up a few days.  With me being sick and us both tired, we decided to cancel our trip to The Grand Tetons the next day and spend another day resting in Glacier instead.  It worked out perfectly.

On the Going to the Sun Road near St. Mary's Visitor Center

In the evening, we waited several hours (that's not a typo) at the Rising Sun Campground for hot showers - the first in 3 days!!  There was one shower stall for each gender, and that was intended to serve the whole eastern half of the park.  All clean, we made spaghetti for dinner and headed to bed early listening to the sounds of someone singing tribal songs at the ranger talk.  

Friday July 29th-

The next morning we slept in as late as we could, made a good breakfast and went through the day relaxing.  We enjoyed having the gift shop so close as we managed to find a game we had played with Danielle Nesbitt, one of my college roommates, called Moose Farkle.  We had loved the game the first time we played so we couldn't pass the chance to pick up a fun souvenir.  Unfortunately, the wind picked up again in the afternoon so we stacked all of our bins (and some that we found in the food locker) on the table as a wind blocker and played for a while.   

Playing Moose Farkle and hiding from the wind. 

In the evening, we headed back to the gift shop, this time for some ice cream sandwiches as a treat!
With the ice cream melting in hand, we headed to a lookout to watch the sunset over St. Mary's Lake. The view was incredible to say the least. 

The sunset at St. Mary's Lake- Tiny Goose Island in the middle of the lake.

Nate wanted to go fishing again and this time, since I wasn't sleeping and was feeling much better, I tagged along.

He caught another one!

  At dusk, we made our way to some of the creeks for some night photography.  The low light allowed us to get some interesting shots with the moving water.  We're newbies and it's no moonbow, but it was still a lot of fun.

Saturday July 30th - 
With another long day of traveling ahead of us, I got up early so I could have a hot shower without the wait!  Not knowing when my next shower would be, it was so great to be clean!  Plus the hot water was refreshing after the chill in the air.  Most of the summer and most of the places we went to were hot, or at least warm, but Glacier felt like it was already fall.  It was in the 50's at night and just barely reached 70 degrees during the day.  We'll be nice and call it 'refreshing'.

All clean, we packed up the tent  and stopped one last time at St. Mary's Lake.  Again the sky was crystal clear and the water still as glass.   It could not have been any more perfect.  We'd love to go back and spend some time actually hiking while we're healthy in Glacier.  I would recommend the trip to anyone.  It's definitely worth it!

Our favorite shot from Glacier - You might see it on our wall when you come visit...