Hightlight of Many Glacier

July 20,
As we drove through Many Glacier, three Big Horn ewes and two lambs crossed the street in front of us and bounded up the hill and out of sight. Of course all cars stopped causing another traffic jam. We were hoping to see at least one Big Horn and ended up seeing eight.
The bottom picture (you'll have to take my word for it) is a grizzley that people were watching from the hill above the hotel.

Many Glacier

July 20,
Many Glacier is another portion of GNP. We entered the park and drove along Lake Shelburne. Fields of wildflowers were on both sides of the street and as many cars stopped to photograph them as usually stop for the animals . We stopped at the Many Glacier Hotel, a Swiss style building with bellhops in Swiss shorts and a violinist in the lobby.

The end of the Road

July 19,
We stopped to see the Jackson Glacier, one of about 50 glaciers left in the park. Of biggest concern, of course is the steady shrinkage of the remaining glaciers. We also saw Grinnell Glacier in another part of the park.
The second picture is of Sunrift Gorge, a narrow straight edged gorge that flows down to another beautiful twin falls.
The third picture is of St. Mary's Lake with Wild Goose Island, a tiny dot in a huge lake.
The tiny peak in the middle of the larger peaks is Triple Divide Peak(last picture). A raindrop falling on this peak may flow toward the Atlantic, Pacific or north toward the Artic Ocean.
It was a beautiful and a little scary(for me) ride. I held on tight with my camera around my neck!!!

Leaving Logan Pass Visitor's Center

July 19,
As we were pulling out of the visitor's center parking lot, we saw three stately big horn rams resting on the hill. The are absolutely magnificent animals and seemed to pose for the crowd that stopped traffic. They are surrounded by the glacier lilies I mentioned in the last blog.
Since we were at the highest point of the road, the only way to go was down. Throughout the trip, we were slowed by construction, but considering the area they were working and the total available space, we were minimally delayed. Many of the men were working right on the edge rebuilding the guard walls.
The mountainviews along the trip were spectacular!!!!

Logan Pass

July 19,
Logan Pass is the highest point on the road at 6646 feet. It is also the place where the road crosses the Continental Divide.
Just before we got to the Logan Pass Visitor's Center we saw the mountain goats.
The views from the visitor's center were amazing,whichever way you turned.
Behind the center was a trail leading out through a field of glacier lilies and other wildflowers to the snow covered fields. There are people walking thoughout the snow covered area below the mountain
The road through Logan Pass is usually open between the middle of June and the third week of October. We were told that up to 80 feet of snow fall in that area.

Going-to-the-Sun Road II

July 19,
The mountains of Glacier are craggy and ridged. The rough surfaces were caused by the movement of the glaciers against the mountains.
The second pictures shows just how high the road is and by going west to east, I was looking right over the edge.
There are people in the bottom right corner showing just how high those waterfalls are.
The last picture is of three arches, one of the engineering wonders of the road built between 1921 and 1932.

Going-to-the-Sun Road

July 19,
After filling the tank and making one phone call each-to parents(no cell service, no wifi, and no tv), we started our 50 mile scenic drive through Glacier National Park. We traveled west to east, starting out by Lake McDonald and the McDonald River(first picture). The lake was often hidden by the trees but the river was usually visible. The river is turquoise with many waterfalls and white water. The road at this time was pretty straight and level.
As the hills and mountains became more visible, so did the waterfalls bringing the melted snow down from the mountaintops. We saw many from one end to the other.

Getting used to the level road, I noticed cars high up on a mountain(third picture). It wasn't long before we were up there, seemingly even with the mountaintops(fourth picture).

Day 1--Glacier National Park

July 18,
We got to our campground fairly early so we decided to check out Two Medicine, a small area in the Southeastern part of Glacier. Going West on Rt 2, we saw five mountain goats at the Goat Lick Overlook, an area of mineral deposits that attracts the goats.

We went into Two Medicine and stopped to take the trail to the Running Eagle Falls. The Falls at this point comes through the rocks but when there's more water another also falls flows over the top. There were two young men near the top of the falls-about 40 feet-that jumped into the COLD pool.

We went to the lake but could not get up the nerve to check out the water temperature. The wildflowers were in full bloom everywhere.

Phillispburg, MT

July 14,
We decided to take a ride to Phillipsburg to see their painted buildings that won a finalist position in a paint company's contest for beatutiful places in America. They had a "Main Street" with many ornate Victorian-style buildings, painted in great detail. Unfortunately the buildings lacked stores or restaurants that really held our attention. After ice cream, we looked around the rest of town, saw the beautiful view of the mountains from above "Main Street" and went off in search of wildlife promised in the tourist articles. We discovered Montana's method for disposing of junk cars and found one of their many ghost towns. The Southern Cross was a goldmine until 1919. There are still five buildings there. Of all the animals we were supposed to see only a skunk and a couple of ground squirrels showed their faces.

The real last day in Yellowstone

July 12,
All through West Yellowstone there were painted bison. This one was at the KOA and depicted camping through the years. The next picture is of the Rockies from the edge of town.
We left West Yellowstone on Rt. 191, heading for Bozeman. What we hadn't realized was that 191 crossed into Yellowstone Park and actually back into Wyoming. It was a beautiful ride following the Gallatin River most of the way. In the middle of nowhere we stopped to watch two groups of white water rafters paddle. We got waves and smiles from alot of them and they all seemed to be having a great time.