Charlestons on the Go: Glacier National Park

From Oregon we headed toward Glacier National Park. We didn't make it all the way the first day. One unusual thing happened. When we were driving through the "Tri Cities" in Washington I called my good friend, Chris, because she had mentioned her sister lived in Washington. We hadn't plan to go through Washington to get to Glacier, but many people suggested it would be the best way. Anyway when I called Chris she said her sister lived in Richland, and guess where we were? Yep? Richland. Unfortunately we needed to stay on course so we didn't make contact, but I felt Donna's presence as we passed through the area.

On our way to Glacier this was the scenery we had.

This is Glacier National Park. We camped in a campground that was on the shoreland of Lake McDonald. Beautiful.

The first thing we discovered was that the Going To The Sun Road was closed because it was still under lots of snow. Here it was the end of June, and the road was still impassable. They said it would not be opened for another couple to three weeks. Actually I was OK with that because we saw lots of pictures of the road up there, and I probably would have had a heart attack if we had driven over it. We drove as far as we could and came to this sign. We were allowed to walk another 3 miles from this sign and got to see some more pretty views, but nothing like what we would have seen if we had driven over the road.

Here are some of the beautiful views that we saw on our 6 mile walk.

There was an avalanche area. Here is a sign showing the avalanche area.

Here is the real thing.

Here was the warning sign. We went on with caution. At least I was cautious.

When we got to this point, the air coming out of the snow "cavern" was very cool, and since it had been a little warm, it did feel good. Here you can tell how big it was.

More pretty scenery.

Since there was so much snow melt this year the water falls were in their glory.

More pretty scenery and water falls.

The end of the line. Or else!!!!

The next day we drove to the East side of Glacier. It took quite awhile because it is about 100 miles, and the roads are steep, windy, and some are in poor repair. I held my breath a few times. So it is good that we didn't drive over the Going To The Sun Road.

We stopped at the East Glacier Lodge for a bite to eat and had this as our scenery as we ate. We shared the table with a couple from Carlisle, PA. My dad was stationed at Carlisle Barracks when I was in 5th grade. We had a nice visit with that couple.

On our way to the entrance, we saw evidence of fires.

Here is the part of the road we were allowed to travel.

Views of the East side of Glacier.

Bob visited with this man from Germany and heard about his views about Greece in relation to the European Union.

This is Goose Island which remained after the glaciers receded. I guess the rock composition was harder and more resistant to the forces of the glacier.

This shows the force of water. The water in this stream has carved out a way through this rock, and there was a lot of water gushing forth.

We took a short hike to see this water fall. Another couple was with us so they took our picture, and we took their picture for them.

On the trail we ran into this deer. Luckily we did not run into any bears or moose.

At the end of the day we visited the McDonald Lodge to hear a talk about glaciers. Since it was raining, we stayed there to enjoy the dry warmth. We also went there for breakfast the morning that we left Glacier.