Glacier National Park - Going to the Sun Road

Friday, Sept. 10 - Joe and I were planning on driving the "Going to the Sun Road" today, so we took off by ourselves.  Collins, Marilyn, Judy and Jerry drove part-way, to Logan Pass, because they had all been here before, but since it was our first time, we were going to drive it both ways.  It's 53 miles to Apgar, the west entrance, and it was just a spectacular drive -- as pretty as any we have been on during this trip.  The great views began as soon as we started out, and continued the whole way, although the terrain changed dramatically from high rocky mountains to hemlock-cedar forests.

One mountain here is called a triple divide peak -- which forms part of the Continental Divide.  Water from this peak flows in three different directions -- Pacific Ocean, Hudson Bay to the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Out in St. Mary's Lake is a tiny island, called Wild Goose Island, the only island on the uninterrupted surface of this lake.

Jackson Glacier is one of the 25+ glaciers in the park, and one of the few you can view from the road.  Most of the glaciers here have receded to the point that they are about to be reclassified as snow fields, a result of the global warming that has been going on for the last 10-12,000 years.

Waterfalls were abundant throughout this drive, from small trickles to gushers, some far away on distant mountains, and some right beside the road we were driving on.

It rained off and on the whole morning, and even sleeted on us for a while, and clouds came in and around the mountains continually.  The temperature got down to 38 degrees at one point.  As we headed up Logan Pass, we encountered heavy fog on our road.

The mountain views were continually changing, and one minute they would be clouded in, and the next minute the clouds would blow out and we could see. You can see in this next picture how this cloud was moving right in to the mountain wall (and our road).

When we topped Logan's Pass (elevation 6,646 - the pinnacle of this drive) we speeded up, deciding to stop on the way back at the viewpoints on this side.  We drove alongside Lake McDonald as we neared the West Glacier entrance.

We exited the park and drove over to Whitefish to refill prescriptions and have lunch.  We did see one deer on this part of the drive, but we had not seen any wildlife in the park.  When we came back into the park, we stopped at Lake McDonald Lodge.  All these lodges have lovely, warm fireplaces with roaring fires right now, which was very welcome.

Joe is waving from the back patio, which goes right down to Lake McDonald.  The red buses were coming in here, and we met several of them on the drive, as well as several antique cars that were out for a drive.  We left there and took a little side road (just to see where it went).

The forest is really thick here, and lush, with lots of undergrowth. 

We stopped by the McDonald Falls and walked across the people/horse bridge (there was a sign that said horses have the right of way, and no person is allowed on the bridge if horses are crossing).

Our next stop was at the Trail of the Cedars, and we walked the 3/4 mile boardwalk among the cedars.  Some of these trees are huge, and we took a picture of the red cedar.

 

 

One of the trees was uprooted and the dirt had fallen out from the roots, so we could really see how extensive a root system they have.  But it is so wet here that the roots don't grow deep, so they are sometimes blown over by the strong winds.  The second picture below shows the red showing through the bark of this red cedar tree.

 

We came upon one big tree that had been hollowed out.  After checking it out for residents (varmints) inside, Joe climbed inside.

Just before we got back to the parking lot, we came upon Avalanche Creek, and I thought I should stick my toe in it, since it had been a while since I had done that.  Unfortunately, my buddy Mazie was not with me to share this.

We tried to make all the stops we had passed by in the morning, and there were spectacular views all along.  I would recommend this drive to anyone coming to this area.

 

This waterfall below is called Birdwoman Falls, and it's just beneath the Garden Wall.  

We had to stop for road construction a few times, but the views were so beautiful that we didn't mind having a few extra minutes just to look.  It didn't rain on our return trip, and most of the clouds had cleared so we got to see things that had been obscured on the morning drive.  And just about 2 miles from camp, Joe spotted two huge bull elk that we got to watch for several minutes.

We weren't close enough for their racks to really show up, but they were probably the biggest racks we had ever seen.  A small muley, buck, ran over toward the elk, then pulled up short.  The elk were bugling, so we never did figure out what that deer was thinking, but it ran toward the elk, then on past.  The wind was blowing about 50 mph by now, and it was really cold, but we stood outside the car and watched them for 15 minutes or so.  We never saw any bear, or any other wildlife, but these 2 elk were beautiful.  This turned out to be a 10-hour day for us, and we were beat when we got back to camp.

From Waterton to Glacier National Park

Thursday, Sept. 9 - Joe and I had breakfast in town this morning, then drove up to the Prince of Wales Hotel to look around before we left the area.

Then we broke camp and headed to Glacier National Park, in the rain, of course.

Seeing the border crossing into the U.S. was a welcome sight, and this time we are back in the states for good this trip (we have crossed in and out a couple of times during our trip).  We got through the border guards without incident -- they just cut my tomatoes in two.  They took Judy's and Marilyn's tomatoes and green onions.  But we made it across safely.

It was only about an hour and a half drive, and we had to watch the highway for range cattle that were roaming freely along the roadside.  We got checked in at the St. Mary's campground at Glacier National Park.    St. Mary's Lake is right along the road in and it is very pretty.

After we got settled, we drove over to Many Glaciers, to the hotel there, and had a drink (I had hot chocolate, it is still cold and rainy).  The red buses shuttle between Glacier and Waterton, and between the East and West sides of Glacier Nat'l Park, so we saw them often.

On nice days, they can open the top for the great views.  Inside the lodge is a lovely lobby with a wonderful fireplace.

This hotel is right on Lake Sherburne, and there were wonderful views right off the back terrace.

They were getting the dining room set up for the evening, and it was very elegant looking.

We went for drinks inthe lounge, then returned to the campground.

The campground was not as nice as the Waterton Townsite Campground, it was more like a provincial park.  We did not have any hook-ups and they would only allow the generators to run at certain times (8:00 - 10:00 a.m.; 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m.; 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.) and they enforced that rule.  But we did have nice views from the campsite.

Pincher Creek to Waterton

Tuesday-Wednesday, Sept. 7-8 - Todd needed to go into Ft. McCloud this morning, so Jerry, Joe and I rode along with him. We stopped at a couple of fields and he showed Joe the canola plants and mustard plants that grow in this area. There are lots of hay fields around here, mostly the big round bales, and we saw a truck unloading them in the field.

Then Todd took us to Sproule Agro Feedlot, where he worked for 10 years. We had talked the night before about the fact that I used to work for the company that manufactured and sold RALGRO, an implant for cattle, and Todd said he still uses RALGRO. This feedlot also uses RALGRO, and it was fun to talk a little bit about that, since I had worked for that company for 18 years (16 in Indiana, 2 in Phoenix).

Todd gave us a full feedlot tour. This feedlot owner leases most of the Indian reservation ground around here, and is a huge rancher in the area. There was lots going on today. Joe and I had toured Monfort of Colorado Feedlot in Greeley a long, long time ago, and it was all very interesting to us.

We got back to Todd's ranch, and then got ready to head to Waterton National Park.

It was only about an hour's drive, and although it had been sunny at Todd's, the closer we got to Waterton, the cloudier it got, and sure enough, it was sprinkling by the time we set up camp. Just after we drove into the park, we saw our first deer, right beside the road.

We camped at the Townsite Campground, which is right in town. Deer roam freely about this little village - we saw several in yards and even in the campground itself, and we had to watch where we stepped in the campground because there were lots of piles of deer droppings all over the campground. The hook-up for the sewer at the campsites was in the middle of the road of the parking spot, and one-legged Jerry had to crawl under his fifth-wheel to get hooked up. Joe gave him a hard time about that.

There's a huge "Prince of Wales" Hotel, which is a National Historic Site, that greets you from atop a hill as you drive into the little town. Collins, Marilyn, Jerry and Judy went to there for drinks, while Joe and I went for an evening drive, scouting for bears (unsuccessfully).

Joe and I drove back to Cameron Falls, which is very pretty, then we drove out to Cameron Lake. Marilyn's sister had told us we had a good chance of seeing bears at this lake, but there were none around. It was misty rainy, and I think they must all be fair-weather bears. But there was beautiful scenery, and we saw a dozen deer along the way. We had seen a dozen deer in town too, so that made 24 for the day.

The lake was pretty, and the water was crystal-clear.

We got up Wednesday morning and decided to take a cruise on Upper Waterton Lake, even though it was cloudy and chilly. We saw on top on the ride down, but all except Joe wimped out on the return trip and sat inside.

The international boundary has a swath cut through the forest, so it was easy to see when we crossed into Montana.

We had a pretty good narrator on the boat so we learned a lot about the lake. And there was pretty mountain scenery as well.

We came back to the camper and had a quick lunch, then Joe, Jerry and I took off for a drive again. We had not seen any deer when we went to the boat dock, but we did see 6 in town as we drove through this time.

We made our first stop back at Cameron Falls to get some pictures.

We took a slow drive on the Red Rock Canyon Road, and on the way back out we saw a deer walking beside the road. By the time we got up to where we had seen it, it had disappeared, so Joe and I took a little hike and found it lying down in a small grove of trees.

Joe hiked up a little higher because we thought there were two of them, but he never did see a second one.

Then we drove out of the campground to the bison paddock, where we saw a coyote on a little lake, and then found the herd of 8 buffalo.

On our way back to camp we took another side road, Hay Barn Road, and came upon two piles of bear droppings, but still no bears. Todd and his family were driving down for dinner, bringing home-grown steaks with them, so we gave up on our scouting and headed home. We had a great visit with Todd and his family, and had a great dinner.

As we finished eating, the sprinkles started -- first time today -- so we got everything put away and Todd took his family home so they could get the kids ready for school tomorrow. We are leaving Waterton for Glacier National Park tomorrow. Maybe there will be some bears there!