Glacier National Park, Montana

Now we have arrived in Glacier National Park at the St Mary's campground!  This park is huge and well maintained.  The Visitors center at St Mary's is really well done.  This year marked the 100th anniversary of the National Park System and the ranger's explanation was top notch.  The park rangers seem to be college kids or retired teachers who want to keep on teaching!  They do a wonderful job.  Our campground is full so reservations good idea--we are here for 4 nights. There is a "first come first served" Rising Sun campground about 6 miles up "Going to the the Sun Highway".

Picture out the car window


We went on a guided mini-bus tour of the first third of "Going to the Sun Highway" with Sun tours.  After July first, this road is served by a shuttle bus since it is so narrow and crowded.    It is hard to believe they built these roads hanging onto the sides of the mountains over 100 years ago. Our guide, Mary, was an American Indian and told us stories of what the mountains mean to her tribe.  They buried their dead in trees after they made them a complete set of new beaded clothes and moccasins and wrapped them in antelope skins.  Their spirits had a chance to escape from their bodies and then later they were buried.  Modern regulations no longer permit this type of escape!

Mary explaining Indian medicinal plants

We are in St Mary's campground and about 5 miles away there was a large forest fire that was deliberately set by a pyromaniac last July 2015.   She is now in federal prison. 

The burn area near mountain stream

The scenery is magnificent!  The glacier melt makes the lakes a gorgeous blue and there are lots of waterfalls along the way.  The mountain glaciers and peaks are beautiful.  We stopped at Logan Pass Visitor Center and watched people walking up the mountain with snowboards and skis.  If you zoom in the snowy mountain picture you can see the skiers.  It doesn't get dark until 10pm here...good training for the LONG daylight in Alaska!

Fact---The RED car tours up the Highway to the Sun are a better tour but you need to book these in advance--sold out for a week ahead.  We think tours are better than shuttle buses because you are provided commentary.
Glacier doesn't even open the Going to the Sun Highway until mid June due to snow and avalanches so their busy season starts July 4th.
St Mary's campground Loop A has the most trees--request if you book ahead.

Today we drove 20 easy miles to Many Glaciers campground and trails.  I am running out of superlatives for this scenery. Everywhere you look is a postcard view.  There are no burn areas in this part of the park so our hike on the Grinnel Glacier trail was through beautiful pine forest and along beautiful glacial lakes.   The weather has been PERFECT since the day we left home!

We stopped to hike to a beautiful falls right off the road.  Pictures tell it all!

Pete's neck and arm haven't been getting much better and really bothers him off and on.  I've never seen this man take an Advil in 37 years until this flared up.  We called my brother in law Tim Gray in Oregon.  He is a D.O. and very knowledgeable about musculoskeletal disorders.  He had some great advice and so we think we are on the right track now.   Thank you Tim!

We  drove the Highway to the Sun on our way out of the park.  Pete found it to be the most challenging driving he has ever done--one wrong turn of the wheel and we would be DONE!
The views were something else but the road had rocks jutting out on our ride side threatening to take off the side mirrors.  He did a great job and we lived!  Now off to join up with our Caravan to Canadian Rockies and Alaska!

Going to the sun highway

Click on the link to see some video of Glacier --- https://youtu.be/ZQy5dkuXjZ0