Montana, West Glacier - Monday, July 30, 2018 - Glacier National Park

We were up and out very early this morning, but so were a lot of other people.

We stopped for breakfast at the Lake McDonald Lodge.  It was good but probably not as good as the price and advertising indicated it would be.

The lodge was built in 1913 and is super rustic.

Totem pole standing guard outside the lodge.

McDonald’s creek feeds Lake McDonald.  I’ll post some pictures later that show how clear this water is.

Since we only have one day we decided to do the drive through the park on Going to the Sun Road.  The West Tunnel is 192 feet long.  Imagine completing this with 1926 technology.  The work of the stonecutters all along this road is amazing.

The Going to the Sun Road has one sharp loop, coming out of the loop the view of this mountain which I think is Heaven’s Peak is spectacular.

I was disappointed that even though we started out early the park was still very crowded, in fact we could only get into a couple of areas to access more information.  Most of that was because the parking areas were full but several of the pullout sites were closed for construction.  Bikers (two-wheel kind) are only allowed on the road until 11:00 a.m. and hikers must be earlier risers than we are.  I think those two groups were the ones in the parking lots so early.

View looking down on a river, not sure which one since we have made so many twists and turns.

This is definitely Heaven’s Peak.  I know that because we could pull off and the sign said so.

No information I have says what this falls is named.  I wonder if maybe it isn’t flowing all the time.  Today it is beautiful, wish I could have gotten a better picture, the sun was shining right into my eyes as I was trying to get this.  There are two parts to the falls, the one above the highway and the one below it.

This is part of the area called the Garden Wall.  The workers who came down the mountain on ropes, set the dynamite and then scrambled out of the way before it went off were called “powder monkeys”.

Looking down at McDonald’s Creek which runs through a u-shaped valley formed by glaciers.

The pullout for the best view of Birdwoman Falls was closed for repairs.  This shows the falls under an area snow.  Where the snow is located is called a hanging valley.

The Weeping Wall was still cascading water.  As the snows finish melting off, the water here slows to a dribble.

Mountain views here are around every corner.

These triple arches were the work of the stonemasons who worked on the original road.  They have since been reinforced with concrete.  Water comes down the side of the mountain into cisterns at the side of the road, goes under the road and out the openings in the arches.

Water cascading down the side of the mountain.

This is Lunch Creek, it is on both sides of the road.

The snow you can see between the mountains is Jackson Glacier.  It is the seventh largest glacier in the park.  Right now the park has 25 glaciers, down from over 100 at one time.  Some seem to think this glacier will be gone by 2030.  This wasn’t what I expected a “glacier” to look like, I think I was thinking of them as more like an “iceberg”.  The difference between a glacier and the spots of snow that may last for a few years is that a glacier moves.  They start out as snow which turns to ice crystals, the crystals are weighed down by more and more snow which changes to crystals, as the load gets heavier the ice is compacted.  Glacier ice will melt at below zero temperatures creating enough water at the bottom to make it move.  We saw information that said that as much as 80 to 100 feet of snow covers the Going to the Sun Road by spring.  The road just opened the last week of June or the first week in July this year because there was a lot of avalanche activity.

We can see the remainders of the July, 2015 fire near St. Mary’s Lake.

The view around St. Mary’s Lake.

The Jeep looking good at the lake.

We stopped at Rising Sun General Store for a break before heading back.

We did see at least part of a bear, see the brown in the center of the picture.

This is Wild Goose Island.  Its claim to fame is that it was in the opening flyover shot in the movie, “The Shining”. 

Nothing special about this tree, I just like it

Water used to pour down over the entrances to the East Tunnel so cars had to drive through it.  Wish they had left it like that.

This is the Logan’s Place visitor’s center.  We thought we might be able to get into it on the way back – no luck.  Rangers were at the entrance waving people to go on.  The Continental Divide at 6646 feet is here.

Another view of the Garden Wall.

McDonald Creek is so clear you can see each and every pebble at the bottom.

We found out why there weren’t any boats on McDonald Lake, it doesn’t get above 50 degrees.