Crossing the Great Divide

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Sigh, today we leave Rising Sun to drive the Going to the Sun Road, across the entire park to West Glacier.  We’ve done a pretty good job of exploring the east side, so there are only a couple of stops we want to make before going into new territory.  First, though, we get up early, pack the car, and have breakfast in the Two Dog Flats café.  There is a new lady at the front desk, Lee Ann, and we start her day off by asking to split our bill.  She’s never done that before but comes through like a trooper and we promise to mention her, along with the other friends we made, when we write to Xanterra to compliment their staff.  She wears her blond hair in a braid over one shoulder and Marilyn asks if the kids say she looks like Elsa.  She agrees that they do and says everyone chooses a role to play!  Kind of profound for first thing in the morning!

The construction is still going on.  I guess it will take more than fourteen years to complete this ten-year project which was begun in 2000.  We only encounter a couple of delays, though, and we aren’t on a schedule.  It is so pleasant to sit with the engine off and listen to the birds.  At one stop we can see a giant crane supporting a basket with two men in it who are working on the outside of the retaining wall.

 We come to first of two tunnels and it is so impressive to see the way the builders blended their work with Mother Nature’s.

 Then we’re back at Logan’s Pass for our third and final visit.  The first two times we saw big-horned sheep both times!  Can the third time be the charm?  We have just parked the car at the end of the lot by the wall where we had seen them before, when we turned and saw two sheep coming down from the visitors’ center!  They run across the parking lot right toward us, then turn left and cross the road and run up the mountain slope.  Wait!  There’s a third one coming down and into the parking lot on the heels of the others! Is he lost? He doesn’t seem to know where he is going and wanders in and out among the parked cars.  There are lots of tourists standing around, gawking and shooting and the ranger has a hard time keeping people he twenty-five yards away from him.  Don’t people know how much it would hurt to get butted by this guy?  They aren’t even keeping their small children in check!

This guy is keeping a watch on the last one to make sure he joins the rest!  Prudential!

Finally, he rejoins the herd on the slope.  We chat with the two rangers who have been trying to protect both the sheep and the people.  They say that the last sheep is a bit of a grouch and a rogue.  He goes his own way and often stays a distance away from the herd.  He’s also been known to butt people! 

As we try to find the herd on their mountainside we realize just how difficult it is to spot them once they are on the rocks and off the snow and grass.

Can you spot three big horns?

How about now?!

The excitement is over and we climb up the steps to check out the progress of the snow melt.  It is amazing how much green there is now when it was all snow less than a week ago!  The glacier lilies are going wild.

 Back on the road as we bid adieu to Logan Pass and enter new territory!  Our very next stop is actually mostly closed off because the crews are overwhelmed by all the snow they are having to remove to open all the trails!  There is a ranger there, K. Bullshoe, who is explaining to people why they can’t go very far down the trail.  She is actually happy to be there because she is hoping to see the wolverine who has bee spotted here a couple of times.  She is enrolled in a Pro Ranger program at Browning Community College and is doing an internship with the Park Service.  Next she will take a law enforcement program and intern with a police department so that she can become a full-fledged park ranger!  She tells us that she saw a herd of elk on Two Dog Flats this morning.  If we had gone left to check it out instead of going right to continue on to Logan Pass we would have finally seen them in actual light!  Oh well.

 This part of the trip should be called Waterfall Heaven!  I won’t even try to name them all much less include all the pictures!  They are all different, yet the same, and we can’t pass a single one!  There is a section of the road called the Weeping Wall and you are warned to roll up your windows so you don’t get water in your car!

 There’s the second tunnel!  This one has a pull out after we get through it, so we can go examine the calcium carbonate being deposited on the inside walls. 

 Lots of twists and turns but the road on this side of Logan Pass is completely resurfaced!  What a treat after two weeks of gravel and traffic stops! There is a stop for the Red Rocks Trail and Overlook which is being restored;  but we can get close enough to see the impossibly beautiful turquoise water swirling and churning!

 Next stop – Trail of the Cedars, a boardwalk through an old-growth cedar, hemlock and black cottonwood forest.  It is like walking through the redwoods in California, so majestic and enormous.  Okay, they probably aren’t as huge as the redwoods;  but the feeling is similar.

 The road runs along side Lake MacDonald which is about ten miles long, and the largest lake in the park, and ends up in West Glacier.  We have no trouble locating Glacier Guides Lodge;  the signage is excellent, as are the directions in our confirmation email.  As we pull into the parking area, Don is waiting to greet us!  He shows off the beautiful lodge and our room and then carries our suitcases upstairs for us! We marvel at the large, beautiful room with a fridge, tub/shower, TV and wifi!  Our windows overlook the wooded hillside and there is a path to the office which is lined with huckleberry bushes.  Don says we can help ourselves!  We have access to coffee and tea all day in the breakfast area and if we see a book in the lounge we are free to borrow it.

The breakfast area downstairs is like a B&B as is the entire atmosphere.  For breakfast there is yogurt and five different kinds of organic, healthy cereals and fruit and several kinds of bread products.

Don is a sixth-grade math teacher and helps out here two days a week during the summer.  He loves the place and it shows.  We tell him we are off to do laundry and he asks if we need soap!

While we are doing our laundry we check out the two gift shops and after our clothes are dry and folded we go to dinner at the Glacier Restaurant.  Our waitress warns us that the Cobb Salads are huge but we are undeterred.  Silly us!  We both bring half our salads home for dinner tomorrow night!  Good thing we’ve got that fridge!

It’s been a long day of driving and stopping and driving and walking and driving.  There’s no posting tonight!  Just sleep!  We’ve got to be up early in the morning for our float ‘n’ boat!