Day 19 - Going to the Sun Road

I am going to have a really hard time describing today. I'm almost tempted to let the pictures speak for themselves. But, since I don't know when I will be able to upload the pictures, I'll go ahead and give you some impressions of the day.

For the last two days, I have been downloading audios from the iTunes store regarding
Glacier National Park. These podcasts are free. Some are video. It is something that was developed by the park to assist travelers who are taking the new park shuttles through the park vs. driving their own cars or taking the red jammers that are available (commercial tour company). We had decided to drive, but I thought having the podcasts would be beneficial to our knowing what we were seeing. And, they were. So, if you are planning a trip out here or to Yosemite, you might want to download the podcasts while you have a strong internet connection. We would up stopping in at the information center where they have the entire set of videos and audios on a cd that takes about 6 minutes to upload to your pc. That after me spending about an hour just trying to get the audio podcasts!!! Well, you live and learn.

Our drive up to Logan Pass was pretty much what we had done the first day we were in the park. My pictures of that section are from the top down, but I'll try to fix that when I get the pictures organized.

It was the approach to Logan Pass which brought all of the concerns about the roads into perspective. We went through one pass on the approach to the visitors center where there were mountains of snow on either side of the road. It looked just like some of the pictures that are posted on Glacier National Park's web site (go visit that site for a lot more information about the park). Then, we got to the visitors center. There was snow everywhere and it wasn't cold enough to anything other than shorts and shirts. We climbed up on the snow mass behind the visitors' center and watched a group of ladies hook up their cross country skies and snow shoes. There is supposed to be a fairly easy hike (via a boardwalk) up to the glacier. Well, the boardwalk was not there. Just snow. We just decided to enjoy the view from where we were. Now, the trip down the little snowmass was a little cold. I'm scared to death of falling, so I just went ahead and sat down and slid down the little hill. A lot of ladies my age agreed that was the preferred way to come down - that vs. falling and breaking something. Of course, Jimmy was totally embarrassed!!! And, my seat was wet for a long time.

When we got to the parking lot, I spotted a herd of mountain goats heading down the mountain across the street from the visitors' center. There was a man with a spotting scope right next to us. He let us look through the scope. Boy, those mountain goats needed a bath and some hair conditioner!!! The gentleman with the scope was leading a group of people looking for wild life in the park. All of his charges had gone to the rest rooms. So, he told us what he would have told them.

We head from the pass down the west side of the mountain. We had just gotten around the first two bends, when we decided to park and take some pictures of the waterfalls and scenery. When we looked back towards the visitors' center, the entire highway going both ways was blocked. Either the same, or a new, herd of goats were trying to get across the road. Our podcasts had just told us to stay out of their way and to give them plenty of room when they were in the area. The male goat was just running back and forth trying to find a way for his flock to get down and across. They finally gave up and just went back up the hill. You couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

There are a lot of pictures that will be uploaded that show the beauty of the park and the waterfalls. There was one area called the weeping wall where, if you were going west, you got wet. We laughed about all of the motorcyclists who didn't read about the weeping wall who were going to get soaked. The weeping wall was man made, in a sense. When they cut the road through, the blasting created this wall of stone where the waterfalls just spill their water onto the road.

There will be a lot of pictures showing the area where the road isn't. Yes, there is a long area where the left side (the side next to the fall away) isn't. There are a lot of big pieces of equipment and big piles of rocks blocking the road, creating a one way street. We had to wait about 15 minutes on the downhill trek until it was the westward bound side's turn. The winter slides had literally obliterated sections of the retaining walls and highway. Thank you Glacier National Park for making that section one way.

On down the mountain we go to Apgar Village where we decide to have lunch. I had forgotten to tell you that Yellowstone has much superior food service to Glacier. When we stopped to have lunch at the East Glacier hotel on day 17, we went into the dining room only to be told that there would be a 20 minute wait for a table. There were at least 80 tables available!!! We went to the lounge and had our food within 20 minutes. Today, it took about 40 minutes to deliver a hamburger at the end of the lunch hour. We never waited in line for fast food in Yellowstone longer than about 5 minutes!!!! So, heads up when you come to Glacier. Bring snacks or be prepared for long waits.

Once lunch was over, we headed out of the west entrance to the park to find diesel fuel for the Jeep. It was about 10 miles north before we saw a green pump handle. And, the price was back in the reasonable range (it is about $5.00/gallon today in St. Mary).

We made the decision to go back over the Going to the Sun Road instead of heading south around the south end of the park. It was just as beautiful going east as it was coming west. We did see two long horned sheep. There is no picture though. There was no place to pull over. So, you will just have to trust me that we saw two and you will have to look them up in a book or on the internet to see what they look like.

The rest of the trip back to St. Mary was fairly uneventful. Again, the trip is in the pictures, which I cannot upload until I have a real wifi network vs. a satellite link.

Tomorrow, we head back towards Mississippi. I don't know how often I will update the blog on the trip home. There are a couple of stops that I know we will be making. Plus, we are going to listen to the unabridged version of the Ambrose book Undaunted Courage. I'll have both the abridged and unabridged versions if anyone would like to borrow them!!!