Trip to Glacier National Park

We took an extra day off so we could get to northern Montana and have time to see the park. We left after work and drove north to Great Falls to spend the night. The Montana scenery was interesting. Sometimes it was flat.

Then mountains appeared.

At one point we traveled through the Lewis and Clark National Forest.

After spending the night at Great Falls, we continued on our way and viewed more spectacular scenery in northern Montana.

Instead of a bison jam we encountered a cattle jam.

Our first stop at the eastern end of the park was the Many Glacier area which included about eight miles of scenic road. Part of it skirted Lake Sherburne.

This is our first sight of a glacier.

Sadly many of the glaciers have disappeared, and it is predicted that they will be all gone in another 15 years. Many of the areas that we thought were glaciers were only snow on the mountains. As we drove along the road we encountered a Red Tour Bus that was stopped on the other side of the road.

We soon discovered what the man was photographing.

A cinnamon black bear was munching berries in the bushes. I wasn't quick enough to get a complete picture. He was walking pretty fast and very close to the road.
As we traveled on toward the end of the road we saw the Many Glacier hotel across from a small lake.

Here are a few other scenes from our travel down that road. It was quite spectacular.

Next we entered the Going-to-the-Sun road from the eastern side at the St. Mary visitor center. The 51 mile road through the center of the park took three decades to construct and over $2,000,000. The first car drove the entire length in the fall of 1932, and it was dedicated in July of 1933. It is a marvel in engineering and labor. We took many pictures, and it's hard to decide which to post. Here are some.

This shows an area where trees are down from an avalanche.

The road was narrow and windy in spots. There were several waterfalls along the side of the road. Here are some children enjoying the spray of one of them.

We made reservations to take the Red Bus tour the next day so we didn't stop at all the lodges and visitor centers the first day. We spent the night at Whitefish, a city about 30 minutes from the park. After dinner there we were lucky enough to stumble upon a Farmer's Market where they sold a variety of foods and Montana crafts. Since we had never tasted a fresh huckleberry we bought a cup of them and enjoyed the tart flavor of the small round fruit. We brought the rest of them home to eat on cereal and in pancakes. Yummy!
The following day we picked up the Red Bus at the western side of the park and headed to Logan Pass. The driver/guide explained that we cold not stand up and look out the top of the bus unless it was completely stopped.

Before we left we took pleasure in viewing McDonald Lake.

It was a crisp clear morning. Here are a few pictures from the many that we took. As usual the pictures can't show the true beauty of the park. Here we are about to go through one of the tunnels.

We stopped at a scenic overlook.

The guide was very knowledgeable and interesting. This area is called the weeping wall because the water oozes out from inside the mountain.

Our turn around point was Logan Pass where we had time to check out the visitor center and walk around the area.

Although the park is noted for its bighorn sheep and mountain goats we did not see any while we were there except stuffed at one of the visitor centers. The view heading west gave a different perspective on the hillsides.