August 3, 2013 - Saturday
It finally quit raining about 11AM, so we decided to go to the visitor’s center with some of our questions; then we hit the Going to the Sun road thinking we would just go a ways, then return. Fortunately, it cleared and the sun came out the further along we got, so we went the whole way to the west end of the park. This road is amazing, a bit of a white knuckle, but beautiful. The challenge to build this thing must have been huge. The road clings to shear vertical stone walls where they built the ledge the road is on. Two sections are undergoing badly needed restoration.
The traffic was extremely heavy, making it slow going and many of the parking areas were full. The NPS has a shuttle system; they run so infrequently it is an all day affair to get end to end and back. So we’re sure others like us decided to drive on their own, thus the traffic problems. Other Parks we’ve been to have really good systems and it works. The traffic issues, the inability to park and explore, detract from having a good experience here. Hopefully, the traffic will ease a bit once we are past the weekend. Anyway, despite those issues, we still were able to do some stuff this afternoon. By the way if you ever visit, the east side is definitely less crowded, and our recommendation.
We managed to find some open spots to see some very cool gorges and waterfalls. Some pictures follow.
August 4, 2013 – Sunday
Wow, a gorgeous day, so we went over to the dock at Rising Sun to take a ranger led boat ride and hike. The boat ride took us to the southern end of St. Mary’s Lake then a hike to Baring Falls, then on to St. Mary’s Falls. The scenery both on boat and foot was spectacular. The falls were also quite impressive. We have always found that any ranger led activity is awesome and this did not disappoint. Our ranger was Megan Lopez and she did a great job. Our only issue, but this is us, we dottle along looking at this, smelling that and can make a day out of a 1 hour hike. We were now on a schedule to keep up and catch that boat back, boohoo!
On Dan’s bucket list was to ride one of the restored red busses, an icon of Glacier. So we took a late day ride to Logan Pass. The NPS originally bought hundreds for use in several parks. They were originally made by White Motor in Cleveland. Wear and tear took its toll and they were replaced in most parks by more modern (shuttle) buses. Ford restored about 50 of them, not sure who paid for that and 35 are in use at Glacier. They are propane fueled with auto transmissions. For a big fee they do special excursions to various parts of Glacier. The experience was OK, but we would not do it again. The cheesy finale was to drop us at St Mary’s Lodge (1 mile from campground) and make us wait 10 minutes while the driver went for gas. No doubt they were expecting us to “visit” the gift shop.
The area that is Glacier NP was formed by a tectonic riff, known as the Lewis Overthrust, where an earth plate over rides an adjacent land mass. This was about 170 million years ago. Most mountains, like the Rockies are formed this way. The plate was then covered by glaciers about 12,000 years ago. The glaciers did their magic carving the valleys and forming the lakes. Those all melted away. In the mid 1800s there was a mini ice age that formed more glaciers, estimated at 150. These further defined the landscape. Today, there are about 25, and these are melting at a rate that they will be gone by 2030. Of note here is that these things melt away naturally, with or without man’s presence. The park was designated a National Park in 1912. So what is a glacier? The answer in a day or two.
Some pictures of our day follow.
August 5, 2013 – Monday
Today we hiked a part of the Highline trail to see the garden wall. It turns out the garden wall is the side of a mountain that has a really beautiful collection of wild flowers. This flower wall extends for over a mile. The trail tracks along a narrow ridge maybe 1000 feet above the valley. Some places have a cable hand hold because of how narrow and rocky the trail was. Our advice, don’t look down! Some pictures follow.
Yes we have seen some wildlife, some small and some big check out these shots!
What is a glacier? It starts out as an accumulation of snow that does not melt for several years. After some time the snow compacts and forms ice. As this ice mass continues to grow from additional snow it reaches a weight that starts it sliding down hill. They have to be about 160 feet thick and 25 acres in area to get the process going because they ride on a layer of water formed from the pressure that causes the ice to melt. Think of how ice skates work. As it slides downward it picks up small rocks and dirt that act as the abrasive to carve the mountains, and as they melt the water accumulates at the bottom to form lakes. So now you know!
