Day 24 - Going-to-the-sun Road

Captain's Log - Day 24

A glimpse of the Going-to-the-sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana

You might want to turn you sound down...

Just for the record (and so Dawn won't beat me anymore) there were no weapons used yesterday to keep me from stopping for pictures. Today she actually encouraged me to stop - OFTEN! Even when I didn't want to she made me. I didn't want to drag the camera out anymore, but she kept forcing me to get the thing out and take more and more pictures! Please don't call the authorities on her or my life may become miserable! [Haha... Just kidding!... kind of]

We got out a bit late today since the two previous days were rather long, but that did not spoil the day at all. We stopped in the small village as we entered the park and were blown away by all the great inns, hotels and cabins. One was right on the lake and looked like something very much worth the investment... maybe another day. The lake was crystal clear and a beautiful color of aqua. Check out the little pebbles through the water. You could see down through two feet of water like looking through glass. [Of course, I didn't want to take this picture, but Dawn made me]

The rivers throughout the park were the same way with lots of waterfalls. As we approached the summit, we decided [Dawn forced me] to take a hike to this hidden lake that was like, 450 miles from the visitor center. We walked through the snow pack in our light shirts cause it was in the upper 70's and a great day! I couldn't even take the time to get my hat - you know, we had to go! In the 5 hours it took to find this hidden lake [it was hidden you know!] my balding head was burned to a crisp. Now tomorrow I will have to suffer through a day of wearing a helmet on top of crispy scalp skin. Sound like fun? Actually, it was well worth the effort.

While we were up there, and actually everywhere in the park, the flowers were blooming with tons of color. Not only color, but a wide variety of different flowers that we had never seen before. [Another picture Dawn made me take... or else!]

The big surprise of the afternoon was while we were on that crazy long hike, Dawn said, "Greg! Look! A mountain goat! A MOUNTAIN GOAT!"

I began looking in the mountains, right? I couldn't see anything. "Where?" I asked.

"Right there in front of us!"

And it was. It was right on the path about 20 yards in front of us with a group of people getting pictures of it. So we slowly crept up and took some pictures with it. Crazy! Right? I'm not gonna lie, I never expected to see a mountain goat that close. I mean close! Within 10 feet!


Like I said, the rivers and falls were spectacular. This doesn't even come close to capturing the power of this falls. It was called the St. Mary's Falls and also involved a bit of a hike, but if you are ever in Glacier National Park, it is definitely worth the mile hike in to see it. Wow! [oh, I mean, Dawn made me hike in there and take some more pictures - ouch! Stop hitting me!]

Under all that snow lies one of the largest glaciers in the park. Sadly, it is only about a quarter of its size in the 40's and each year shrinks a bit more.

We felt as though we got to experience a little bit of heaven today as we walked among this small portion of God's creation. Through the day, we were within 20 feet of all kinds of little critters along with the mountain goat and a deer. But the mountains, the rivers, the flowers and even this shot of the moon all combined to be a truly inspiring day. All kidding aside, we couldn't take enough pictures to capture all we had seen and all that we did take (only 156 pictures today!) fall short of conveying the splendor and majesty of the park. We just had to praise him for all he has done for us!

Strangely, we left the park and 40 miles later - only 40 miles! - this is the way the land looked as we faced west toward the mountains we had just left. This photo was taken as we traveled between Browning and Cut Bank, Montana. It was a bit incredulous, the thought that we were just in those spectacular mountains and now found ourselves on these gently rolling hills with hardly a tree to be seen. The mountains simply stopped and the grass plains began. Odd. By the way, that is Highway 2 you can see running along the left side of the picture - speed limit, 70 mph! The upside? One can really make some time traveling!

Tomorrow? Highway 2 across Montana. Who knows how far we will get. One thing is for sure, we won't be taking 156 pictures!