Since we only really had one full day to spend at Glacier, we decided that there were two major areas of Glacier National Park that we wanted to see, the area north of Saint Marys – Many Glaciers Lake and the 50 mile long Going to the Sun Road, which extends across the entire park for east to west.\u00a0 From a lighting stand point for photos I thought it would be better to hit Many Glaciers in the morning, then drive around US 2 to the West Entrance and take the Going to the Sun Road back to Saint Marys, which is at the East Entrance.<\/p>\n
Although it was pretty cloudy most of the day, we had only a very little rain and the clouds added a lot of visual interest to the landscapes which were spectacular since the fall colors had just started a day or two before we arrived.<\/p>\n
The hotel on the lake in the early set of photos is the Many Glaciers Hotel on Swiftcurrent Lake.\u00a0 It along with the other lodging inside the park had already begun shutting down for winter.\u00a0 The little caf\u00e9 we stopped at for breakfast before diving into the park had bacon crossed off the menu, I asked the waitress why, thinking that the cost of pork had gone through the roof, she smiled and said, “Nope, tomorrow is our last day open this year and we ran out yesterday!” Good resource planning!<\/p>\n
After returning to US 2 we had a really nice drive around the outside of the park to the West Glacier Village, along the way we stopped in East Glacier MT where we had Chili\u00a0 and another new IPA to taste!\u00a0\u00a0We stopped at the Glacier Park Lodge and Resort for a photo op for Bettie and also took a look at the Great Northern Train Station as well.\u00a0 While at lunch, we met a couple who was taking the AMTRAK from Seattle to Chicago and had stopped in\u00a0Glacier and rented a car to tour around the park. The apparently have taken many train trips like this and have really enjoyed them. It sounded like they had\u00a0a first class sleeper\u00a0room, and were\u00a0quite happy with the service… maybe a future trip for us?<\/p>\n
The Road to the Sun\u00a0heading east passes by Lake McDonald which is truly a beautiful mountain lake, unfortunately much of the north side of the lake was scarred by a wild fire in 2003. Like Yellow Stone decades earlier this will be a long time in coming back to it’s former glory.\u00a0 Hopefully the USFS and BLM have learned their lessons about total suppression and thinning of our forests.<\/p>\n
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As we have seen in the earlier parts of our trip, the drought has really taken a toll on the glaciers and the lakes and reservoirs and forests\u00a0along the west coast and northwest.\u00a0 I wont get into a\u00a0discussion about climate change, since it has moved from a scientific to a political discussion. Weather or not\u00a0the current drought\u00a0was\u00a0brought on\u00a0by global warming\u00a0due to carbon emissions or it is another perturbation in the world’s normal climate changes\u00a0I don’t\u00a0know, but I can say that in the almost 40 years that I have been traveling around the country, and world for that matter,\u00a0\u00a0the glaciers are dramatically receding, the forests are drying and burning and the lakes are becoming very much smaller.\u00a0 I am not sure what, if anything can be done at this stage to change what is happening, but I must say I am glad that I was able to see it before it is gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Day 15 – Glacier National Park Since we only really had one full day to spend at Glacier, we decided that there were two major areas of Glacier National Park that we wanted to see, the area north of Saint … Continue reading