Thursday, July 2, 2009

Going To The Sun Road, Glacier NP

Yesterday we moved to St. Mary’s Campground,  just inside the St. Mary entrance to Glacier National Park, a 20 mile drive from Many Glacier. The campground is much more open but we got a site with great views of the mountains. And we have great cell signal here, so we are back online. Plan on hanging out here for the big 4th of July weekend. Luckily the national parks aren’t really places people come to party for the weekend, so we expect it will be quiet. We did have a nice fireworks display at 11 last night, we guess from somewhere in St. Mary, but why they had it on the 1st is a mystery.

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We drove up Going to the Sun Road yesterday, stopped at Logan Pass and the Visitor’s Center. There was a trail we wanted to hike to Hidden Lake, but we only got about a half mile and decided to turn back before we broke something. There was lots of slushy snow and it was too easy to lose your balance. Jim went down once on his butt, and I somehow managed to stay on my feet. It was kinda fun, though. The wildflowers made such a nice contrast to the snow.P7010019

The trail was also way too crowded with people and kids for us!

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We drove along the Sun Road to The Loop and turned around. Pulled over to take some pictures and as we got out of the car, this mountain goat came walking by. That was the first time we’d seen one, and they are surprisingly big. He walked across the road right in front of some cars and continued grazing.

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Now all we have left to see here are bighorn sheep and bears!

Here are some of the views from the Sun Road. It is quite spectacular and the road was not as bad as we expected. It is steep, winding and narrow but was built in the 30’s so that is to be expected. There was quite a bit of snow at the higher elevations, and the entire road had just been opened on June 26, due to avalanches.

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We stopped on the way back and hiked to St. Mary and Virginia Falls. No snow there, and the falls were gorgeous.

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We don’t usually take too many pictures of ourselves, but Jim got a new  Tilley hat in West Yellowstone and this is our first picture with him wearing it. Pretty snazzy, huh?P7010033

2 comments:

  1. Hi Folks,

    Sure do love your pics!!! We're enjoying revisiting beautiful Glacier through your eyes. Wow -- seeing a moose -- that is a special day.

    BTW - July 1st is Canada Day (their Independence Day) so you were probably seeing fireworks from across the border.

    We're near Port Angeles, Washington and could see the fireworks across the Strait in Victoria last night -- pretty cool.

    Virtual hugs,
    Chris & Frank

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  2. Hi Chris and Frank,

    We went to Waterton yesterday and read something about their July 1st Canada Day celebration, so we, too, assumed the fireworks were for that. We are only about 20 miles from the Canadian border but the fireworks sounded and looked closer. May be just this clear mountain air!
    Glad you're enjoying the pics. Have lots more from Waterton. We are really enjoying it here. Hope to meet you guys when we're in Oregon.

    Gayle

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