Glacier National Park had always been in my wish-list of places to see in the United States. But it had been blocked from visiting because of the snow in one of the important roads “Going-to-the-Sun road”. And we kept monitoring the road conditions and the plowing progress. We started driving on the very day when the road was fully opened. It was just the right time of the year to go to Glacier National Park. We just went for a weekend and we started driving early on Friday. We started from Redmond in Washington, drove on I-90 through Idaho, till the point where we had to fork off I-90. We stayed in the Super 8 Motel in St. Regis, Montana. We took a couple of breaks on the way. One was the Wild horses monument on the way in Washington and the other was the dinner break in Taste of India, Spokane (we had a simply superb Briyani and great desserts). That was all for that evening and we had a good night’s stay in the motel.
Speed Boating on Lake McDonald
The next day early in the morning, we started towards West Glacier and it was one of the best drives. You will go via the “Flathead lake” which is really BIG. And the days we traveled were having clear blue skies. And the water was blue in open areas, green on the borders with leaves reflecting on the water. It was a pleasure driving along Flathead lake. Then we reached West Glacier and took the “West entrance” of the Glacier national park. Then we started driving on the Going to the sun road. We saw the lovely “Lake McDonald”. We stopped in the Lake McDonald lodge. Took a speed boat and we rode the boat on the huge lake. It was an experience of lifetime to ride a boat. We got life jackets and all four of us never have driven on boat. The right and left are opposite to control and it made it thrilling and the waves on the lake made us feel that we are on an ocean. The views from the lake were really great.
Glacier view from a tunnel
After the boating, we had lunch at the lodge and then saw “McDonald Falls”. I simply could not keep track of the waterfalls we saw on the way. There a lot of glaciers – the number is decreasing rapidly. By 2020 or so, people estimate there won’t be any glacier left. These are the people who really know how bad Global warming is. And on reading the articles there, you will have to become very conscious of the ill-effects of global warming. The road is very scenic and you will have to stop in many places. The tunnels and the glacier viewpoints through them, the waterfalls, the trees, greenery – simply amazing. “Jackson Glacier” is the most prominent of all. The on the road you can see the “Weeping Wall”. It is something different and mostly one of its kind.
Mountain Goat climbing the snow-clad mountain
After this comes the engineering wonder, “Triple Arches”. This road is a marvel in the engineering history and was made out of materials in the same area. There you will be close to “Haystack falls”. From this area you can see a waterfall called “Bird Woman falls” at a distance which is really a very high waterfall just below the hanging valley glacier. Then we headed towards “Logan pass”. We saw a mountain goat as we were approaching the pass. The temperature dropped as we reached Logan Pass. We also saw a marmot there. Then we spent some time there and then left towards “St Mary”. The lake there is big and you again can see two colors. After reaching the St. Mary area, we exited by the St. Mary entrance and went to the “Two Medicine” area. Two medicine does not indicate any two peaks. The name has a Blackfeet tribal story behind it. We did not do much in this area. We just saw the Lower Two Medicine lake and the peak there.
Then we went up again and Chief mountain highway and saw the “Chief Mountain”. Then we retired to our hotel in Babb. This was the first day. There are so many wow-places in the park especially on the Going-to-the-sun road. I will add some more pics of the day.
Weeping Wall
Two Medicine area
Chief Mountain
Haystack Falls near Triple arches
