The Drive, Day 9, Sat, 9-5 Glacier National Park...

Day 9 was a bucket list item. We would drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. We would begin at St. Mary and end at West Glacier. Our hotel for the night would be another hour and a half south in Polson, Montana. Whew! 

It rained overnight and we woke up to a rainy morning. This day I started recording the beginning milage for that day. We started at 2,435.6 miles driven so far. We drove 1 1/2 hours to get to St. Mary. We left the hotel at 8:17am and it was 55 degrees outside. As we drove, the sky would try to clear a bit. 

We completely passed the entrance to get us to Glacier and Going-to-the-Sun Road. We found a gas station and got a bite for breakfast, filled the gas tank and turned the car back toward the entrance. It was not very far back down the road. As we drove through St. Mary, I could understand why the hotel availability had been limited. You have to get to the lodge near the entrance to find hotels and they were sooooo expensive. This is why we stayed 1 1/2 hours away. It all worked out great.

Our first stop was St. Mary Visitor Center. We entered the park at 10am. 

As we walked back to look at the exhibits, a little boy, maybe 2 years old, came up to Claude and put out his fist. He wanted a fist bump. So cute. Claude gave him a fist bump. Then he came to me for a fist bump. Then back to Claude. Sweet moment in time. 

I enjoyed this diorama of the Continental Divide. It had labels calling it the 'Backbone of the World'. These could be found in the Native American languages and in English. I love this. It reminded me of being in Israel or other countries were multiple languages are spoken. All the street signs are in these languages. In Israel it would be English, Hebrew and Arabic. 

Near a large window with a magnificent view, was another diorama of Glacier National Park. This one depicted all the glaciers in the park through the years. You could press a button for 1950, the year I was born, and see what glaciers were in existence then. At the end of the Little Ice Age around 1850, there were about 80 glaciers in what would eventually become Glacier National Park. Based on aerial imagery from 2015 there were 26 named glaciers that met the size criteria of 0.1 km, nine fewer than in 1966. Of the 26 remaining in 2015, some may now already be too small to be considered glaciers. In addition to the roughly two dozen named glaciers that are monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey, the park also hosts several unnamed glaciers, about a dozen rock glaciers, and many snow fields. Most of these glaciers are tucked in shadowy niches high along the Continental Divide. This map also has a button to press to see the peaks higher than 10,000 feet. I tried to get pictures of some of this but the tiny lights that show up to the eye do not show up on the pictures. It was a cool exhibit.

Now, we were ready to drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road. There were still going to be rain clouds and wisps of clouds on the mountains. Claude and I were actually grateful we got to see the first part of the park with this type of weather. By afternoon, the clouds were gone and the crowds of people gushed in and filled all the overlooks and roadways. 

Our first awe-inspiring views were of St. Mary Lake. There is an island in it  named Wild Goose Island. We got a picture of us with that in the background. The water was so still and the reflections in the water were stunning. 

There is a sign that says 'Jackson Glacier'. Across the highway at the overlook is the view of the Jackson Glacier area in the second and third pictures. If more snow falls in winter than melts in the summer, the glacier will grow. It shrinks when summer melting out paces the winter snowfall. 

This is a picture of Jackson Glacier in July 11, 2023. The seasonal snow and the glacial ice are noted on the picture. The glacial ice is darker in color. 

On we drove on toward Logan Pass. 

And we arrived at Logan Pass. This is where you cross the Continental Divide. All the water will flow in the opposite direction from this point. Yesterday (Sept 28), I saw on Facebook, where a huge section of mountain slid down the mountain. This was actually where the Continental Divide was located. Now they must assess changing maps as the river now flows in the opposite direction and the actual location of the Continental Divide is different. The world is always moving a changing. We are usually unaware of this. Logan Pass is 6,646 feet in elevation. 

Just before we left for this trip, I read an article that said you should plan you entrance and exit to Glacier by how you want to drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road. If you enter at the East side (St. Mary is where we entered) and drive to the west, you will drive on the inside of the road. That means you will be in the lane of traffic closest to the cliff on the passenger side of your car. If you enter at the West side, you will drive on the outside of the road with the drop-off on the passenger side of your car. This will actually apply to our visit to Crater Lake as well. Claude was driving the inside lane. As we approached this area, it was a little tense. The drivers on the outside lane don't want to get to close to the edge, particularly if they have a nervous passenger. This means the crowd that center line. Drivers on the inside lane need as much of that center line as they can get so they don't knock off a rearview mirror or scrap the passenger side of their car. Add to that, that most overlooks are on the outside lane. This means Claude had to cross the on-coming traffic to park at an overlook. Then cross back over that traffic to get back in the inside lane again. Yike!! He deserves a medal for getting is through safely. 

Claude taking a welcome break while I ran across the highway to get some pictures. 

You have to love the places where water flows down the mountain into the lakes and streams. Some of them are natural stone and some look like man made them to help stop erosion. 

Claude taking a picture of me taking pictures. Classic.

Can you tell we are now going down the mountain?

We came upon a traffic jam. The weather had cleared and all the afternoon traffic was coming in from the west entrance. We think they waited for the weather to clear. But that was not why cars were stopped and filled the overlook and clogged both lanes of what should have been moving traffic. We looked to our left and saw the reason for the back up. A bear was visible and everyone wanted their wildlife picture. I am amazed at the number of people out of their cars and walking closer. It is a bear. It is wild. This is his home and we are the intruders. I got our picture between Claude, the steering wheel and out the driver's window. 

We made it to Lake McDonald. We would drive along the south side of it to Apgar Visitors Center. 

We took a break at Apgar before heading to Polson and our hotel for the night. We were grateful the first part of our day was overcast and cloudy. Much less traffic and people. Easy to find a parking spot at the overlooks. We learned Claude has 'cremnophobia' which is a fear of edges. Had to look that one up. We had always said he had acrophobia, a fear of heights. But it was nice to have another word to better define his fear. Honestly, we are both older and much less steady on our feet so going to the edge of something is not nearly as fun as it used to be. 

It was 1:09pm Mountain Time when we left Glacier National Park. We stayed in Polson, Montana. It is located at the south end of Flathead Lake. Our hotel room had a big picture window with a king-sized bed across from it. We totally enjoyed relaxing on that bed with a view of this beautiful lake out the window. 

We tried to walk to Betty's Diner next to the hotel for dinner. It was closed. We got in the car and drove on down the highway along the lake to see what we could see. We finally came back Stageline Pizza which was attached to the opposite side of Betty's Diner. We could have easily walked there. Silly Us!