Later on, IRL

September 16

Our day began with a drive along US Highway 2, which it turns out, connects us to home.. It continues west all the way through Washington state, across the Cascade mountains and ends at the port of Everett. Here in Montana we drove east from the town of Columbia Falls to the western Glacier NP entrance. We drove through the park on The Going to the Sun Road, which cuts a scenic trail across the width of the park.

The term “scenic” is such an understatement. It’s like saying the Titanic is a boat. The landscape is vast. Ironically Glacier National Park isn’t a great place to see glaciers. There are 26 glaciers remaining in the park out of the original 80 or so when the park was first established. Most of the 26 are relatively small and can only be seen by doing a wilderness backpacking trip. We weren’t up for that, but we did get to see one, The Jackson Glacier, from a roadside viewpoint. Compared to what we saw on the Icefields Parkway a few days ago, it’s tiny. But still beautiful.

There was so much more to view, so let me backup and start at the beginning now that we’ve got the “glacier” issue covered.

The entrance to the park follows along the Flathead River. Just a mile or two later, we came upon Lake McDonald with its glassy, reflective waters and further down the road, McDonald Creek and McDonald Falls. These have nothing to do with fast food! They were named for Duncan McDonald, a fur trader with the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Going To the Sun Road quickly began climbing in elevation and soon the narrow, 2-lane road was twisting and turning through a number of ridges where we could see mountains, valleys and waterfalls from every angle. There were a lot of people but apparently just a fraction of the summer crowds. It was a picture perfect day, sunny and bright. So I’ll just share a few photos here so you get the idea, with the caveat that they don’t do the scenery justice.

The panoramic photo of the day was taken by Marshall:

Instead of turning around and driving the same route back, we went out of the park on the eastern boundary and made a huge loop through the wilderness. The road less traveled, you might say. We saw very few other vehicles for many miles, and the speed limit was low because of the terrain. At one point, we came around a curve and saw 5 or 6 cars pulled over with folks looking up the hillside. Marshall spotted the object of their attention immediately- a black bear. Just hanging out, being a bear.

Now, he’d been looking for wildlife all day in the park, but it wasn’t until we were well away from the area that this encounter took place. We were at a very safe distance with a good telephoto lens. Just as it should be.
What a day! What an epic, epic day.
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