Journey Day 10 - Glacier National Park area tour (Glacier 1)

[catchup; photos added 25/08/16]

Interrupted sleep so tired again. No air-con and with it being in the 80’s F yesterday, the residual heat was trapped upstairs in the loft. We do have a fan, which is very noisy but even that cannot compete with the long freight trains which pass close by even through the night.

We are staying here for 2 nights and it is self catering so breakfast was quick with orange juice, cereal and doughnuts with fresh coffee then out on the road for 8:30am.

(postscript - to be fair you should read tomorrow as well as the following, but this was how I felt at the time)
Glacier National Park is a bit of a cheat, you would expect glaciers but it is named from what formed it millions of years ago and only a few small glaciers exist in the park and they have been rapidly shrinking for 20 years and are expected to be completely gone in10. I have to admit to having not read too deeply and missing these facts so am disappointed to find an area which for sights of glaciers in summer is totally outclassed by the Pyrenees and French Alpes.

Over simplifying, the Park has a single crossing, the “Road to The Sun”, which we were advised was a narrow steep and tortuous to drive. Well, it’s not difficult to drive, the gradients are nothing to the Lake District, the closeness to rock sides makes the A82 near Loch Lomond seem wide and the drop offs to side are rarely dramatic.

We wanted to drive across from west to east so took a “Scenic Drive” route which skirted south of the Park to West Glacier before entering the Park. “Under-whelmed” was my reaction to the southern passage and the western side of the Road to the Sun. I admit that 4 days around Yellowstone leaves things needing to be amazing but I’ve come an awful long way and spent a lot to see nothing better than camping in France.

Now, I guess I’m being unfair, we did stop a lot to look down on beautiful lakes and at wide views of mountains with dots of snow.  The Park really struggles with visitor numbers and on a Sunday many turn outs were already full by 11 in the morning. We arrived at Logan’s Pass, the summit of the road and were lucky to be one of the last cars in before they closed it to further parking.

Here things looked up. As with so many wild areas, you cannot experience them from the car and when we set out for a hike to Hidden Lake Overlook, we were surrounded by Alpine Meadow flowers and Chip Monks and Columbian Rock Squirrels provided entertainment and interest. As we climbed away from the car park, though surrounded by many others, the views became wider and more impressive and at our turnaround point the view down to the Hidden Lake was gorgeous nestling blue several hundred feet below.

Descending back along the same route we passed a pair of grizzled mountain goats and further on another pair with a kid. Strange animals, they look as if they have visited a low budget taxidermist.

Back at the car about 2pm, we drove a mile on before stopping and eating lunch off the back of the car looking over lake and mountains. We then headed East and exited the Park turning south before re-entering on a dead end road at Two Medicines. A pleasant valley and we walked for a mile or so through woodland by the lake to an area where beavers are sometimes active. No luck, again.

A lot of areas we are visiting are frequented by Black and Grizzly Bears and there are warnings all over. We are not carrying bear spray like many people are but working on being near people we can run faster than (Joke!……. though true in practice).  We have not had any bear sightings so far.

The road at Two Medicines is on unstable ground and we regularly encountered sections slipping downhill; leading to a step at both ends. Quite a rollercoaster ride in places. We were again glad of the high clearance and large wheels on the SUV.

Having been low on wildlife sightings we were heading down the road when we spotted a pair of Elk(*) in the undergrowth next to the road. * need to check they were Elk and not another tine antlered deer.

Both very tired and on the way back we decided to eat early then not have to got out again so stopped at Luna’s, an Indian owned restaurant in East Glacier. Finished off by sharing a slice of Huckleberry Pie which seems to be the local thing. After eating we returned and sat on the balcony for a while with a cold beer in stead of writing tonight.

Todays' route:

Statistics: Miles today: 152 miles; Miles so far: 1993; Fuel added so far: 71.2 gals; States: Montana; Time Zone: Mountain Daylight Saving (UK-7)

So Far: