We started out the day with some fortified coffee, spuds, ham and eggs before hopping into Charlotte for a spin up Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park. Peggy and I passed through Glacier in 1980 but, due to our advanced age, we only remember certain parts. The park west entrance is about 10 miles from our current RV spot but, due to our decided lack of speed getting going this morning, we did not make it to the gate until just after noon. There was a big line of cars in front of us at the fee station but after all the traffic-halting bozos finished asking the attendant whether they were at Glacier or querying why they have to pay to enter, we passed through easily because we used our access pass and avoided the $30 entrance fee.
Two miles past the fee station, the road starts following the south shore of McDonald Lake which is quite beautiful, particularly because it is located between enormous, jagged mountains on all sides. There are crystal-clear creeks and rivers running alongside the highway between the lake and the terrifying part of the road. The elevation at the road along the lake is about 3100′ but after passing the lake, it starts climbing very steadily crossing an enormous rock cliff called the Garden Wall. The Wall sticks up about 6000′ above the road at the bottom. This is where the challenging part of Going to the Sun Road begins. It is just barely wide enough for our F-250 most of the way up the cliff face. It is narrower than that in some spots and not encroaching into the oncoming lanes requires either nerves of steel or plain idiocy.
We continued along the cliff for about 20 miles (the Garden Wall is enormous) passing waterfalls, brilliant assortments of flowers and magnificent scenes of the Rockies for the passengers but not for the drivers. Taking your eyes off the road here will be almost instantly fatal as the drop over the edge averages about 2500′. It is spectacular.
After much staring at the approaching pavement, I pulled over at the Logan Pass visitor center. The parking lot there was clogged with many cars, some driven by inconsiderate assholes who will back up the abundant traffic while waiting for some pedestrian to walk the considerable distance to his vehicle and pull out of his valuable parking space. We had spent enough time in the parking lot to discern that if we really wanted to be part of the solution instead of the problem, we should leave. There are a few visitor centers in Glacier and we certainly did not need to visit this specific unit. We were able to muddle our way through the morons clogging all roads in the lot and finally found the exit. We headed back down Going to the Sun Road, getting the wonderful opposite view of what we had seen on the way up. We also got to drive on the bank side instead of the awful cliff side of the road and were relieved of our obligation to be as careful since we would not be the ones plunging to the distant bottom of the precipice should we have made a driving error.
We pulled out at many turnouts on the way down both the Wall and the river. The river’s water is absolutely clear but it appears to be turquoise-colored when it finds a deep, calm spot along it’s route. The rocks on the river’s bottom are plainly visible and multi-colored.
Once we got back near the park west entrance, we pulled over and parked in the lot for the Apgar visitor center late in the afternoon. The crowds die down later in the day and I was able to shop and check out without any problem. Glacier NP is an amazing national treasure and we will happily make another trip into this place tomorrow.
There are some pictures of this gorgeous place you can see if you click here