Advertisement
Published: July 26th 2017
Edit Blog Post
DSCF5218
old red buses driving around the park Mileage 269.6
We didn’t have to pack up the van as usual because we’re staying in the same hotel tonight, so we started out early this morning. Susan’s driving down the road and my GPS has us going a different way than we had planned. So, cutting across multiple lanes of traffic multiple times made us look crazy. But who cares? As we were driving down the road, we saw a guy cutting the grass in the field that was at least as big as a football field with a weed whacker. Seriously, this is when I would buy a lawn mower, not a weed whacker . . . Jerry!
We finally made it to the West Gate of Glacier National Park and got on the “Going-to-the-Sun Road”. We drove down the road bordered by trees with a lake on the other side. Every time we tried to pull off, there was construction or it was roped off for road construction. What? It was really frustrating. Whenever we were able to catch a glimpse the lake, it was the most gorgeous color of Caribbean blue imageable. We were just dying to get a good picture of it. As we
DSCF5235
view of McDonald Lake were driving through the park, we saw these old red and black buses that look like they’re dated from the 40s. These buses can be convertible to let the riders see the towering rocks above. We stopped at the lodge and walked down to the lake to take a lot of pictures and the view was beautiful. Afterwards, we stopped at the gift shop and the lady working there was from Asheville. Our next stop was at McDonald Falls and we watched a girl do a “Pam” trying to get her feet wet in the river, but she slipped and fell into the river instead. After that we stopped multiple times to see the mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, and cliffs of the park.
Then we went to Heaven’s Peak (aka Havana Park – that’s me because I’m getting used to my glasses and I can’t see without them). I then spot both a District of Columbia and Cherokee Nation license plate. Ascent time…. we start climbing and climbing and climbing. Oh man the views are great but it’s straight down from the side of the van. Pam and I are on the side that is next to the drop off.
DSCF5227
Susan and Pam at the lake Susan is navigating the road. We stop many more times for pictures and the scenery is amazing. We finally make it to Logan’s pass and yes, the parking lot was full, but right as we pulled in someone was walking out. They pointed to us and told us to follow them. We got a spot. I think other people were mad at us for getting a place so quickly. We checked out the visitor’s center and gift shop after walking thru the pathways around the area. There were these squirrels that don’t look like squirrels but rather more like a very small beaver that were running all around the area. I caught another picture of one sitting up.
As we were leaving, we tried to pay our parking lot experience forward and saw a van with a mother and her children. Unfortunately, some jerk cut in front of her and took the parking place before she could turn in. People. I hope karma gets them later today.
Now, it’s downhill. The downhill side toward the east gate is not as step and winding as the uphill side. We did see our idiot for the day. There was a
DSCF5247
bridge over the river so we could see the waterfall snow cave, a place where the snow had melted and formed a cave. Yes, there were signs all around it, danger, stay off, could collapse. Yes, you could see places where it had recently collapsed. But there was a man and a women who climbed inside. You can just see the title of the article. Man dies in collapse of snow cave. Wife says, I never thought it would break…People are idiots. Then a mother brought her 2 daughters over. At least they didn’t go inside but still, geez, they stood right below it. Maybe Darwin will take care of our species after all.
After leaving the park we headed north towards the Canadian border, but we reentered at Many Glacier Valley. This is another US entrance to the park. We drove in and well, the roads were not in the best of shape. After a few miles, we saw the sign, “rough road”. Seriously. YEP, it got worse. Poor Parker (our van) got all jolted and so did we. We drove all the way in and saw the dammed up beautiful green lake. We drove to the lodge but decided to go back a bit and stop at
DSCF5251
the waterfall one of the overlooks to eat a quick lunch. Susan and I had fruit. I’m not sure what Pam had. We could see the lake from our spot.
As we were driving down the road Susan states, “bear” and Pam says she saw it too. I see something black heading down into the woods below the road, but the camera is too slow. U – Turn and head back – we didn’t think we would see it but low and behold we did, a black cow. Actually 3 black cows and one whitish one. So now we have cow-bears. U-turn again and out of the park over the bumpy road.
We then head down the road that is east of the park. Susan is in search of rocks. The rocks here are truly beautiful. They are all different colors and just shine in the stream. She sees tons of places to get them in the parks, but you can’t take stuff out of the parks. We stop a couple of times outside the park but there were no real finds. There were some t-pees near the road at one place and we got pictures.
We then got
DSCF5253
Clear water in the rivers and lakes on a road similar to the Paulina road near Crater Lake. It was as curvy and steep, but at least this one was paved. It was bumpier though. More rough pavement…
We head back into the park at the final entrance “Two Medicine”. Susan said she read it was a must see. It was pretty but we all agreed that it wasn’t a must see. We didn’t stay long and got back on the road – Hwy 2 – that went around the bottom half of the park and back up to West Gate. We decided not to go back into the park for dinner but headed to Columbia Falls and found a place to eat there. It was a nice relaxing meal. We then headed back to the hotel to work on the blog….
remember lots of pictures at the bottom and this one probably goes 2 pages..
Advertisement
Tot: 0.178s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 14; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0522s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Diane Usoff
non-member comment
Day 12
I love your commentary and the pictures are gorgeous. Just wondering if the squirrels were looking for nuts. Lol. Sounds so enjoyable