Going to the Sun (or the clouds...) Highway

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"The region that became Glacier National Park was first inhabited by Native Americans. Upon the arrival of European explorers, it was dominated by the Blackfeet in the east and the Flathead in the western regions. Under pressure the Blackfoot ceded the mountainous parts of their treaty lands in 1895 to the federal government; it later became part of the park. Soon after the establishment of the park on May 11, 1910, a number of hotels and chalets were constructed by the Great Northern Railway. These historic hotels and chalets are listed as National Historic Landmarks and a total of 350 locations are on the National Register of Historic Places. By 1932 work was completed on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, later designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, which provided greater accessibility for automobiles into the heart of the park." Wikipedia



The predicted weather for Glacier included afternoon rain and snow today, so we got up early (6:45am), loaded up the car, breakfasted, and headed for the Going to the Sun Highway.

"After the park was well established and visitors began to rely more on automobiles, work was begun on the 53-mile (85 km) long Going-to-the-Sun Road, completed in 1932. Also known simply as the Sun Road, the road bisects the park and is the only route that ventures deep into the park, going over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass, 6,646 feet (2,026 m) at the midway point".

It was even more spectacular than I imagined...Not much traffic, clear views of the mountain peaks to begin with, and golden aspens lighting up the mountainsides.

We visited the lodge at Lake MacDonald where we had tried to book rooms with no luck. The Lake McDonald Lodge, initially known as the Lewis Glacier Hotel, was the second hotel on the site. The first, the Snyder Hotel, was built by George Snyder in 1895. It was accessed by a steamboat that ran the 10 miles (16 km) from the Apgar area to the hotel, preceded by a two-mile trip on a horse-drawn carriage and a ferry trip over the Middle Fork Flathead River. The Lewis Glacier Hotel lodge was built in 1913 by John Lewis. Railroads wanted to attract tourists and create resorts that were equal to the scenery, and private operators like John Lewis had to build equally impressive facilities in order to keep up. The hotel was built in 1913-14, working through the winter months, and opened in June 1914. The new hotel was designed to continue the Swiss cottage theme already developed by the Great Northern railway hotels. Artist Charles M. Russell was a frequent guest at the hotel in the 1920s, and is claimed to have etched pictographs in the dining room's original fireplace hearth.

We stopped to hike the short Cedars trail, and had the lovely surprise of a beautiful stream tumbling down through boulders....

We had short rain showers from time to time, and then drove into the clouds and some snow at Logan Pass (around 6000 feet). We had about 2 miles of limited visibility and then it just misted for the rest of the highway.

We next drove north to the Many Glaciers road, and then back south, heading for Helena where we are staying with friends for few nights before heading back to Glacier when the weather improves on the weekend.

We stopped several times on the way to Helena. We visited the Museum of the Plains Indians in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation, and then came across a fossil shop in Bynum, which proved to be much more interesting than it appeared.

"In late July of 1978 Jack Horner (very well-known archaeologist) visited the Rock Shop and Museum in Bynum, MT. Local resident Marion Brandvold had discovered baby dinosaur bones that she showed Jack. Laurie Trexler had also found an adult duckbilled dinosaur skull nearby. The baby bones were the first to be found in North America, and the first in a nest anywhere in the world. Both the babies and the skull were discovered while Dave and Laurie Trexler and Marion Brandvold were working on an adult dinosaur they planned to display in their museum. At the time, this display would have been only the second dinosaur on display in Montana.Bob Makela and Jack Horner collected the skull and site materials from the baby locality. They also borrowed the baby bones collected by Marion."

"The original Maiasaura nest contained remains of baby dinosaurs that had been hatched for some time before their demise. Because these individuals had remained in the nest after hatching, some individual (most likely the mother!) had to have been caring for the babies. This was the first indisputable evidence that dinosaurs were capable of any sort of complex behavior."

There is a lot more to the story: http://www.lacusveris.com/The%20Hi-Line%20and%20the%20Yellowstone%20Trail/The%20Rockies/Dino_Hunter.shtml

The owner of the fossil shop is the second husband of Marion Brandvold....

We visited the museum next door where Marion's baby dino bones are displayed, apparently restored to area after a lawsuit....

We arrived in Helena at dusk, in a light rain...after seeing more wildlife (deer, antelope, and elk) along the deserted highways than we'd seen in the three previous days!

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Photos

Avalanche Creek
The gorge of Avalanche Creek near Avalanche Campground is another example of post-glacial stream erosion, only here the whirling action of sand and gravel-laden water has carved out a number of cylindrical potholes in the stream course. Some of them, though only 6 to 10 feet across, are 20 or more feet deep.

Going to Sun Highway starts out on the flats along Lake MacDonald
Ten miles long and nearly 500 feet deep (152.4 m), Lake McDonald, the largest lake in the park, is a direct result of glacial carving. High peaks surrounding the lake all show evidence of the power of glaciers to carve even the hardest of rock. The powerful glaciers that carved the broad "u-shaped" valley that Lake McDonald sits in also carved smaller hanging valleys with wonderful waterfalls.

Fireplace at the MacDonald Lodge
The lobby is a large, open space that extends to the third story. It has a massive fireplace and a concrete floor scored in a flagstone pattern, with messages in several Indian languages inscribed into it.

Road we just drove on is far below!
Frank A. Kittredge of the Bureau of Public Roads directed the survey of 1924. The project, which mappedout 21 miles over the Continental Divide, started in September, and Kittredge raced to finish the survey before winter closed in. Kittredge and his team of 32 men often climbed 3000 feet each morning to get to survey sites. The crew walked along narrow ledges and hung over cliffs by ropes to take many of the measurements. The work was too challenging for some, and Kittredge’s crew suffered from a 300 percentlabor turnover in the three months of the survey.

Stopping at one of the many pull-offs
Although the Bureau of Public Roads provided the road building expertise, National Park Service landscape architects together with the Bureau’s engineers created the specifications for the road, working to blend the road into the surrounding environment. They insisted that the bridges, retaining walls, and guardrails be made of native materials. Most of the structures along the road used rock excavated from the adjacent mountainsides during construction. Another concern was with construction methods. Contractors were required to use numerous small blasts of explosives, since large blasts would cause more destruction to the landscape. It was even recommended that power shovels are excluded from construction, but since the expense of a road built exclusively with hand labor was too great, they were allowed to be used.

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Nature at its best
Nice

[D MJ Binkley]

Nature at its best
Nice