2nd
July 2016
“Going-to-the-Sun”
Road. WOW !!
My alarm went off
at 5 am, and after lying there for a few minutes trying to decide whether this
early start was a good idea or not, I peered out the window to check and make
sure there were no bears sitting outside waiting for their breakfast, and since
it was all clear, I got up and had my breakfast and packed up. By 5.45 am I was heading out of the campsite
and down the dirt road back to Glacier Park entrance – And this time since I
was the only car the only dust was mine, and I wasn’t eating it !
The early morning
light was amazing – Almost like haze, trying to hide the mountains in the
distance. And with the Flathead River
winding along just below me, and the sun slowly hitting the tops of the hills
on my left, it was just a great time to be on the road. I passed a little wood pole cottage nestling
under some pine trees in a meadow beside the road, and then saw my first
wildlife of the morning – An elk standing there in a field staring at me. Having decided I wasn’t a threat, he trotted
off to continue his search for some breakfast.
Many of the
photos just look hazy, but it was really difficult when the sun was on the
hills but shadow in the valleys – In fact, this was to be a problem all morning
as I climbed into the mountains. I
nearly decided to go back later in the day to have a second look when the sun
was high in the sky – But the crowds on the road soon put an end to that idea.
But for me at
about 6.45 am (by the time I passed the visitor centre and headed onto the
“Going-to-the-Sun” road, that was not yet a problem. There were a few cars, but just the early
birds like myself, taking advantage of the early start. Driving along beside Lake McDonald was just
perfection, and at the NE end of the lake there was the McDonald Creek and the
McDonald Falls. Then the road started to
climb up, through tunnels (one 192 ft long one dug by hand in 1926 !), past
tree-branch block waterways, and with increasingly spectacular views of the
surrounding mountains.
We reached “The
Loop”, which is a hairpin bend, with almost 360 deg views of Stanton Mountain,
Mount Vaught, and the 8987 ft Heaven’s Peak.
Still a lot of old dead trees, mostly left from a fire in 2003 I have
learned, which only served to enhance the scenery all around me. (I have also
learnt that, like in Australia, they have earned that instead of trying to
prevent all fires, they should allow them (as long as they don’t get out of
hand) because they are in fact an important part of the growth pattern of the
flora.)
From The Loop,
the narrow road (no motorhomes or any vehicle over 21 ft long allowed on this
road) wound its way upwards, clinging to the edge of the mountain with sheer
mountains rising up on one side and sheer drops down below me on the
other. The light in the wide glaciated
valleys had me thinking there was something wrong with my camera, but it was
the contrast between bright sunny areas and the darker valley floors still in
the shade that gave it the most incredible light. Makes you realize how amazing your eyes are
because they can work the light and the dark out, whereas the camera has
difficulty ! It was almost like sunbeams
coming diagonally across the valley as the sun slowly appeared above the
mountains on my left – I sat in layby for some time just watching the whole day
unfold before my eyes.
Rising up above
the heavily glaciated shape of the McDonald Creek valley, I passed the 492 ft
Bird Woman Falls flowing down the hillside and under one of the several stone
arches (the architecture of which this road is also famous), the Haystack Creek
flowing down though another stone arch under the road, and on to The Weeping
Wall. When I (frequently) stopped to
admire the views, there were sometimes hoary Marmots sniffing around the car,
checking it out.
The Weeping Wall is
just that – A number of outlets of water from the rock, that then flows across
the road. One can only imagine how
treacherous it would be after a cold frosty night !! This road has only just opened for the
season, and as we climb higher it is easy to see why, and there are frequent
signs of trails still closed because of hazardous conditions, or large areas
where snow still sits both above and below the road itself. Saw some plants I had never seen before - Called Beargrass, it only blooms every 5 – 10
years, and ironically is eaten by deer, not bears ! It is actually a lily, not grass.
Travelling
eastwards as I was, there was a good view of the triple arches which support
the road across a solid rock section, and then it was a climb up through increasing
amounts of snow to the summit at Logan Pass at 6646 ft – The continental
divide. It isn’t very high round here,
but I guess it is far enough north, and influenced by the rest of the Rockies,
that it gets such fierce weather in winter.
The visitor
centre at Logan Pass is the main area on the road, with a Visitor’s Centre and
the start of many hikes and trails – Although trails do start from many other
places along the road. When I arrived it was still only 8.30 am, so the car
park was half empty, and the Visitor’s Centre wasn’t even open yet. As I walked up to the big open area below the
8760 ft Clements Mountain, I was surprised to see several people walking up
with skis on their shoulders ! And just
as I arrived at the top, a Ranger came down muttering
There is still a
lot of fairly deep snow lying around up here at Logan Pass, (thus the skiers
!), and it still covered many of the walkways around the Visitor’s Centre. There are also hundreds of bright yellow mountain lillies Apparently the bears love
the bulbs of these and will lie around digging them up for hours.
After a quick
visit to the Information Centre where, amongst other things I learned about the
difference between prairie dogs and Columbian ground squirrels, as well as some
of the details about how and when they built this road, I went back down to the
now almost full car park and found another Troopie – A German one with a full
camper on the back, and with stickers on it showing they had come from Tierra
del Fuego up. So of course I started
chatting, and they are also headed to Alaska – Franz and Hildegard. It turned out they were camping on the east
side of the park last night, where they said there were lots of camp grounds
with free space – If I had known that I would have driven through the pass last
night and camped on that side ! After
swapping a few tales, they went off to explore the area, while I headed down the
other side of the mountain pass, sown towards St Mary’s.
It is still
spectacular on the eastern side, but perhaps slightly less so that on the
western side – Or maybe one just become inured to all this beauty after a while
!! But it was a great drive down to St
Mary Lake, and after driving along the shores of that for some 10 kms, one
comes out of the park and back to reality !
Driving just a few kms up the road I saw the camp site where Franz and
Hildegard are staying, and since I had had an early start I thought a peaceful
afternoon was in order, so I stopped there too.
Interesting name for a campsite – “Chewing Blackbones” !! As you might guess, like many other areas
around here, it is steeped in Indian history, and this is actually a meeting
ground for Blackfeet celebrations and meetings.
Certainly an interesting campsite.
I spent the
afternoon doing a few odd jobs, and snoozing, and when Franz and Hildegard came
back I joined them for a beer and a chat before heading off to cook my bangers
and mash for supper. Franz is trying to
do the same as me – Keep a low profile over this Canada Day / US Independence
weekend, so he suggested trying another part of the Park tomorrow – Many
Glacier, it is called – which may be a bit less crowded. We shall see.
But not an early start, for sure !!
Glacier National
Park is stunning – And there is a lot to do and explore there. One really needs to come here for maybe 2-3
weeks, NOT on the July 4th weekend, and just spend time exploring it
as it deserves. But even on a one day
whistle stop tour like mine, truly an adventure that has been much
enjoyed.
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