Thoughts on Glacier NP

We are currently ensconced in our campsite in Malta, Montana, on Route 2, in the northeastern portion of the state. It is beastly hot, but we have phone, AC, and WIFI for the first time in 3 days. So we are checking email, and I'm finally back to our blog.

Flathead Lake was spectacular, and the drive from there to Glacier NP was just fabulous. The Montana sky is so blue, and the foliage is so green, and the mountains are covered with ice and snow - a combination that gives a 360 degree vista of beautiful things to look at. Montana is a wonderful state. It even has lots of espresso bars!

We arrived at Glacier on Sunday about 2:00 PM and after making camp (at which we are becoming increasingly competent and speedy) set off to the visitor center for brochures and other info. The National Park Service does a nice job printing materials to make sure visitors get the most of NP facilities. What a wonderful and under appreciated resource! Anyway, we then hit the "Going to the Sun" road for a few miles just to preview our drive for the next day. Our goal for Monday was to drive the entire famous 53 mountainous miles through the park - one of only 3 roads in this huge expanse.

One thing I haven't commented much about is the daylight up here. The sun comes up about 4:30 and doesn't set until 9:30, but it stays light until almost 11:00. As soon as the sun sets, the temperature drops precipitously and quickly about 40 degrees. As soon as the sun comes up in the morning, the temperature climbs just as fast back up into the 80s. And the wind blows constantly. It's clear and dry, although Monday was a little hazy in anticipation of a rain shower that finally arrived in the middle of the night. Anyway, the weather made for a perfect drive along the road that is designated one of the most scenic drives in America. The sky truly is big; you feel as if you're on the top of the world.

Glacier NP has a partnership with Canada's Waterton National Park. They share the border, and the combined parks is designated as the International Peace Park. There is even a scenic road crossing the border, a boat ride on a lake that crosses the border, and numerous hiking trails for which a passport is required. Glacier-Waterton is also called the "Crown of the Continent". At between 6,000 and 8,000 feet, higher on some peaks, with the granite and shining glaciers it does feel like you're sitting on the crown of the continent.

We didn't cross the border, but we got within 2o miles of it, and we did drive the "Going to the Sun" road. Round trip. It took all day and was well worth the time, and we were rewarded with a frappacino at the west end. Glacier NP is pretty remote, and compared to Yosemite or Yellowstone fairly primitive. There are over 700 miles of hiking trails, but most are difficult to access and moderate to difficult with significant elevation gain. We took a couple of short walks, but between the altitude and that Steve has developed some knee pain and is dosing frequently on ibuprofen, we elected to spare him too much up and down. Nevertheless, there is a lot to look at and lots to photograph. We even were able to give Doogie a chance to take a brief swim in one of the green-blue glacier lakes.

Everyone has heard that the glaciers are disappearing, and that is immediately evident. The park predicts the glaciers will be gone by 2030. We recall reading somewhere that the Bush administration made Glacier NP revise some of the materials they use to teach about glaciers to state that the glaciers are undergoing a natural evolution as opposed to melting rapidly due to global warming. This occurred to us after we viewed the introductory film shown in the visitor's centers and noticed that the film never mentioned climate change. How odd, and sad, don't you think? The exhibits and informational signs that are posted throughout the park do talk about climate change, though. We joked that the anti-science crowd (we named a few names, but I'll spare you) probably never took the time to go that far into the park.

Today we took route 2, as I mentioned, clear across northern Montana to within 100 miles of North Dakota. It's straight, flat, and empty of traffic, especially trucks. An easy drive after the first 100 miles down the Rocky's. We intend to be in Dickenson, ND, tomorrow night, and Fargo on Thursday. From there, a couple of days in Minneapolis, a couple of days in Madison, then on to Hamilton, ON, Canada for a couple of days prior to heading for Upstate NY.

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