Not Every Day Can Be a “10” (Glacier NP 07-21-12)

Someone said that to me not that long ago, and of course, it’s very true.  We had a day that certainly wasn’t a ‘10’ the other day.  We got up early to drive up Going to The Sun Rd. to Logan’s Pass, so we could snag a parking spot for our enormous truck.  We planned on doing a hike at the peak, then driving down the other side of the mountain to see the sights. 

We made it to the parking lot ok, and got a spot, but there was a “road closed” sign blocking the rest of the road.  Some people may have heard about the rock and mudslides in Glacier.  Apparently there were 12 mudslides that impacted Going to The Sun Road.  After watching video footage, it’s amazing no one was killed.  The slides had happened the day before, but we had no idea how bad they were.  Actually, the road was closed for more than 2 days. 

So, with the road closed we headed to the hiking trail, only to find out it was closed too- due to snow.  Next we tried the Visitor’s Center, but apparently the rangers live on the wrong side of the mountain and couldn’t get there to open it, so… we needed a new game plan.  We decided to go to Canada for the day.

We went home to get our passports and headed for the border. Once we were in line, waiting our turn, Paul said “uh oh….the firewood.”  The bed of our truck is PACKED with firewood.  Of course, one of the questions from the Canadian Border guard was…..do you have any firewood?  Once we answered in the affirmative, he said-no problem, we can dump it off to the side and go on our way.  Paul said “nope” it isn’t worth dumping, we’ll just turn around and go home.

So the nice border guard called the American side to let them know that a huge F450 was headed back because of the firewood in the truck.  We get back to the American side and what we got was a lecture about carrying firewood, and an order to dump it all.  As irritated as we were, arguing with a border guard was not an option, so we unhappily dumped the firewood and went home. 

Now, on to the fun stuff…

Take Two of taking the shuttle over Going to The Sun Road.  On the way over in the morning, it would have been more appropriate to call it Going Into The Clouds Road.

 
I actually think this road is more awesome when there are clouds.

The clouds just wrap themselves around the mountain peaks and are constantly creeping and swirling.

We’ve done two more really great hikes- one was up a peak (2500 ft elevation gain) to Scenic Point for a 360 degree view:

On the way down we ran into some big horn sheep, almost literally.  These guys were really close to us.

 

For our last day, we decided to hike to an actual glacier.  Grinnell Glacier, to be exact, although we couldn’t get all the way there because the trail was closed due to snow.

We passed by three lakes on the way there:

Swift Current Lake

Josephine Lake

And, once we gained some elevation, we got a phenomenal view of Grinnell Lake:

When we looked to our right, we could see Grinnell Glacier, Grinnell Lake, and Grinnell Falls. The glacier is the largest patch of snow, on the right hand side of the picture.

After spending 3 weeks in Yellowstone, our measly week in Glacier went by way too fast.  We did get to spend a little time with our friends Dave and Nancy, who are fulltimers, and working near Glacier for while this summer, but their schedules were hectic so we didn’t get as much time with them as we would have liked.  And, as usual, I forgot to take pictures when we were hanging out with them.

Now we are on to more adventures in Montana…….