3rd
July 2016
More mountains,
and back to Canada
There are several
roads into Glacier National Park. One is the one through Polebridge which is
much smaller and dirt road. The main one is the “going-to-the-Sun” road which
cuts right through the mddle of the park from west to east. And then there are
a couple of other smaller entrances, Two Medicine down to the south, and Many
Glacier, just slightly north of my campsite last night. Since I was here, and in no particular hurry,
I decided to go into Many Glacier since I already had my Park Pass so it wasn’t
going to cost me any extra. And what a pleasant way to start the day –
Definitely a Black Wine Gum start, with totally different mountains despite
only being about 10 or 15 kms north of the road I was on yesterday.
My first sight
as I drove along the main road was this sheer sided monolith peering over the
closer hills, that I think is Gable Mountain, at 9262 ft - That would be a difficult one to climb ! Then at Babb, I turned left and after a short
drive entered Glacier NP again – Driving alongside Lake Sherburne – with
multiple snow covered peaks in the background.
A VERY different day today than yesterday – overcast, quite a strong wind,
and a lot cooler. If one was out walking
even for a short time you needed jackets and long trousers instead of shorts
and T shirts !
Alongside the
road into the park the wildflowers are coming out in all their glory – a blaze
of purple and yellow and pink and orange.
No wonder the bears love sitting in the middle of them eating them - They look delicious !
The end of the
road is only 10 or so kms in, and it is just a big car park with camping areas
all around it (solidly booked out, unfortunately !) and trails leading off into
the mountains in all directions. That is
what most people are here to do, especially the glaciers, so there are some
pretty serious climbers here setting off with their crampons etc ! Today not really much a fun day to hike up
high, but for those who have come here just to do that, the weather is no
deterrent !
Just back from
the car park and campgrounds, on the shore of Swiftcurrent Lake, is a very nice
hotel with a view right up the lake towards the glaciers. I am sure it would be
a gorgeous place to stay ! The glaciers themselves, after which this part
of the park is named, are the Gem Glacier, the Grinnel Glacier, and the
Salamander Glacier, and they nestle under the mountains which are probably the
back of the ones I was driving up beside yesterday. Very scenic, even on a grey
day, although the sun did come out for a little while while I was there.
It was then back
down out of the park, allowing Troopie to get up close and personal with a
grizzly on the way out. I went and
topped of my fuel tanks with “cheap” US diesel, and then headed the 20 kms or
so north to the US / Canada border post.
You drive straight out of the US, and there was no queue at the Canadian
post, so after a few quick questions about my guns, drugs, alcohol (of which I
had none) and whether I was carrying more than $10,000 in cash (I wish !), I
was off into Alberta, wild rose country.
Like much of this
part of the world, Alberta round here is pretty big and flat – But it is quite
a sudden contrast after all the mountains I have been in for the past couple of
day just 20 kms back down the road !
Flat and open – And lots of rapeseed, which smells horrible and makes me
sneeze ! I was passed by a 3-trailer
semi, like Australian road trains, and at that moment I was passing a turning
to “Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump” !! I
didn’t go up the road to find it, but it is, as the name suggests, a great
cliff where the Indians used to herd buffalo so the ran over the cliff, and
smashed their heads in so they could be easily collected by the tribes ! Shortly after that we passed a smiling farm
house !!
Having turned
into a sunny and warm day as soon as we crossed into Alberta and left the
mountains behind, about 80 kms out of Calgary the sky ahead started to get very
black indeed, right across the horizon.
About 40 kms out of Calgary we hit it, and it was probably the heaviest
rain I have seen in the past 2 years – It absolutely bucketed down, and
additionally the wind was blowing it really hard across the road. Several people stopped beside the road rather
than drive in it, while others continued in the fast lane at 110 kmh (or more)
just as they were doing before the rain ! (I have not overtaken a single
vehicle (truck or car) all day – 100 kmh is just not fast enough for this lot
!) . The rain continued for a good 30
minutes or more, and I had both my front windows leaking slightly because it
was just so heavy and windblown – I never knew I had a leak before !!
Anyway, just as
we neared Calgary, we came out the other side into blue skies again, and all
was well. While last Friday was Canada
Day, next Friday is the start of Calgary Stampede weekend, so once again I am
finding a lot of accommodation is booked out already. I found a campsite on the west side that can
give me accommodation for just tonight, so I quickly took it. While seeing some of the Stampede would be
fun, doing it on one’s own is not exactly exciting, so I will give it a miss
and head on up north to where it will hopefully be a bit quieter – After Yellowstone,
Glacier, and 4th July crowds, a Stampede crowd would be a bit too
much for me right now !
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