8/12/2018

Headed to Glacier NP to take another trip over the “Going To The Sun Road”. This time, on the way over to the east side, Nancy did much better by not paying so much attention to the side of the road and the long , steep drop-offs. However, on the trip back, she was very nervous we would hit the side of the truck on the rock wall (opposite from the side with the drop-off). Anyone that has been on that road knows how close 2 cars (let alone two large pickups!) have to pass in some places where the rock wall juts into the road a little.  Had I not tucked in my mirrors, I’m pretty sure we would have hit the wall with our mirror at least once.

Another cool thing we found is that the wildflowers in the mountains are in full bloom. They are everywhere and it has made all of our time in the Rockies just that much more spectacular.

Once we got the east side of the park (St. Mary’s), we headed to Many Glacier (no, not “Mini”) to do some hiking. We saw a black bear on the way but by the time we got the camera ready, zoomed in and took a pic, it just looked like a black blob.  For our hike, we decided to go to Iceberg Lake, mainly because it’s one of best trails in the park to see wildlife. As it turned out, there was a ranger there advising folks the trail had been closed due to too many grizzly bear sitings the day before.  We were bummed……for about a second.  So we hiked to Grinnell Lake, which sits at the base of the Grinnell Glacier. The hike is a little over 7 miles roundtrip but only includes about 350 ft of elevation gain. It was fairly easy hike that passed through dense woods and around 2 other beautiful, crystal clear lakes on the way there. About 3 miles in, there was a wobbly swinging bridge crossing over a stream. When we reached the lake, it had that same beautifiul blue water quality as the other lakes e have seen….and you could see the Grinnell Glacier sitting high above. We also saw the Salamander Glacier. We took a few pics and headed back to the car. When we got back, we found a nice shaded picnic table and enjoyed a great packed lunch Nancy had prepared. Then we headed back home. The air on this side of the park is much clearer than it is on the west side.

We saw this sign on way in to Grinnell Lake, and within 1/2 mile, we came upon some fresh bear scat (poop) on our path. We stayed close to some other hikers that had bear spray.

This pic is at Grinnell Lake.

The road from the east entrance to Logans Pass is actually fairly good. But as you approach the pass, the road narrows and you really have to drive carefully. You can tell the people that are really freaked out….they tend to approach straddling the center line or well into the other lane until they slow to a crawl and move over. There were a few times when we were just barely able to pass. The first pic shows just how narrow the road gets in some places.

This whole area is on extreme high alert for fires. The visibility and air quality has already been impacted by the huge fire in northern California. In fact, we heard it is even affecting the air as far east as New York.  Anyway, as we started down from the Logans Pass, we noticed a large area of brownish smoke rising from behind a mountain. It was obvious that it was a forest fire. They have had very little rain for weeks and everything is very dry. Our RV park is not even allowing propane fire pits. As we got closer to the Lake MacDonald Lodge, we discovered that the fire was actually just on the other side of the lake from the lodge (Nancy and Phil had eaten their lunch along the shore there Monday after their hike). We parked and walked to the shoreline behind the lodge and found lots of people watching it.

As far as we know, this fire just started today. We haven’t heard how big it is, how many acres have been burned, or if it is contained yet. So sad….you hate to see this anywhere, but especially in place as beautiful as this.

On the way back, I finally succumbed to a craving I have had since we got here…..we stopped and got a huckleberry milkshake….and yes, it was delicious.

We got back to our RV at about 6.

Note to Tim – we put some of “Tim’s Magic” on our fish tonite and it was absolutely delicious! Thanks!