Glacier National Park, August 2018

When you've been friends for twenty-five years (almost to the day), a memorial trip seems like a superb idea. So Marybeth and I did just that in the form of a five-day road trip to Glacier National Park. As we drove home we decided we'll do it again in another twenty-five years—but next time we'll make it a cruise! Whenever we travel, we're reminded that we are such different people. Maybe in another twenty-five years we'll have figured out why we're friends! (Regardless, I'm glad we are!) 

I've written up a few notes from each day of our trip, but mostly it's for me to remember. You can read it, or just enjoy the pictures.

Day 1: Driving 
We drove. And drove. And drove—640 smoky miles from Draper to Missoula, MT. We decided not to drive the full way to Glacier in one day, predicting that eight hours of driving (not including stops) would be about our road trip limit—and we were right!

Day 2: And There Was A Fire!
The plan was to drive the two-ish hours from Missoula to Kalispell, then explore the west side of the park a bit. Nothing set in stone. We knew the next day we'd spend traversing the Going to the Sun Road, twice. Or so we thought.  Mother Nature had different ideas... 

Flathead Lake between Missoula and Kalispell.
This is not Glacier, but it's beautiful.

We checked into the hotel in Kalispell and had a leisurely lunch at a local spot. We specifically decided to avoid chains in favor of local dining most of the time, and the Desoto Grill did not disappoint. It was unique. Delicious, and—well, let's just leave it at this: The women's restroom was decorated with framed Annie Oakley memorabilia and they served my water, Diet Coke, and cherry cobbler in mismatched mason jars.

Toward 4 p.m. or so, we headed into the park (about 35 miles from our hotel). We decided to drive up to Logan Pass, both to make sure we got to see it and also to get a feel for the Going to the Sun Road for the next day. As we passed McDonald Lake, a plume of orange smoke rose from a spot on the other side of the lake and filled much of the sky in the area. And the further we drove, the smokier it got. By the time we were climbing toward Logan Pass, the valley below us was nearly invisible in the haze. Scenic Logan Pass was shrouded in smoke, too. It was all still stunning, but I was a little disappointed not to get the iconic blue sky, majestic mountain, meadow wildflower experience (and photo) on all the brochures.

Glacier (and hazy skies)  at Logan Pass

These pink wildflowers caught my attention
everywhere we went

Smoky view of the river we followed on
the way in, now nearly 3,000 feet below us
(Going to the Sun Road)

Marybeth took this shot of the fire
across McDonald Lake just after dusk

We turned around and headed down the Going to the Sun Road, reaching the bottom just after dusk. Rangers were no longer letting people up. It was dark enough that Marybeth got some amazing shots of the fire across the lake, and when we got back to the hotel we learned they'd evacuated the McDonald Lake area lodging and campgrounds about 30 mins after we left. And they closed Going to the Sun Road on the west side. Turns out, we'd grabbed our only chance to see that side of the park at all. The west side of the road (from Apgar to Logan Pass) would remain closed for the rest of our trip.

This video from a local news affiliate shows a time lapse of the fire; the first 30 seconds or so is what we saw that evening.

Going to the Sun Road, approaching Logan Pass.
See the hazy river image above for the passenger-side view!

Finally, a word about the Going to the Sun Road on the west side. The lower parts of the road reminded me of the old Provo Canyon road before it was widened. Two curvy lanes, river to the side. As we got higher, it was hairy in spots. We never felt unsafe (there were guardrails and such), but it climbs quickly, and before we knew it, we were driving with a rocky cliff rising on one side and a mind-bogglingly deep ravine on the other—and what felt like only about six inches of shoulder on either side. I was grateful my car is so small, and that the road is meant to be taken so slowly.

Day 3: My Favorite Day

Because the west side of the park was closed, we had to revise our plan. So we drove the southern border of the park (not nearly as scenic, but still lovely) around to St. Mary, the east entrance of Going to the Sun Road. That side of the road was much less treacherous than on the west, and while the views weren't quite as striking, they were amazing (and bonus, not smoke-filled!) The closer we got to Logan Pass, the smokier it got, but there were blue skies over St. Mary Lake.

Receding ridges. The haze adds a little to them, I think.
(Going to the Sun Road)

    

Random waterfall right along
Going to the Sun road

Marybeth taking a picture of me taking
a picture of the random waterfall

Mountains, water, blue sky, clouds.... check.

Late in the afternoon, we took a boat tour on St. Mary Lake. So worth the $27 ticket! For an hour and a half we toured around the lake, heard stories from the tour guide, and took pictures of the park from a decidedly different vantage point. And on the tour I finally got my iconic photograph of blue skies and majestic mountains.

   

The small island sits atop a pillar of rock harder than the rest of
the sedimentary rock in the park. The harder rock isn't
soft enough to be eroded by the glaciers. 

A few things I learned from the tour guide and ranger on the boat:

Starting the boat tour - just so you get a sense
of the boat, and of my selfie game.

Dead Horse Point: When the Going to the Sun Road was being built, some of the horses (or even a lot of them) would die. Now, because a dead horse would attract bears, the worker would bring the corpses over to (what would later be called) Dead Horse Point and throw the carcasses into the lake.

Early Demolition in the Park: One of the first chalets in the park fell into disrepair during the depression. The owner was told he needed to fix it up or tear it down. So, they tore it down, pushed it onto the ice covering St. Mary Lake, and set it on fire.

We spent about 20 mins on the shore on the other side
of the lake. Marybeth found herself a comfy spot!

Why So Blue: The reason the lakes in Glacier have such a distinct blue color is the glacier run off. Or rather, the "flour" in the run off. The sedimentary levels in the mountains are so soft, and the pressure of the glaciers on them are so strong, that the softer rock can get ground to a fine powder "the consistency of baking soda," our guide said. These tiny bits of rock are so small that they don't sink when they get pushed into the lake with run off from the mountains. Instead, they float near the top of the water. And the sun's reflection off those tiny particles of mountain rock is what gives the lake its distinctive color. Other lakes in the park (like Two Medicine) that don't have as much glacier run off don't have the same deep blue color.

I, on the other hand, opted to put my feet in
the water. Cold! And then I had to deal with
tiny rocks stuck to the bottom of my feet!

How Glaciers Really Work: I've always pictured glaciers carving out a valley by pushing through the rock they encounter. A soft-rock mountain meets a moving harder-ice mountain head on, and the rock eventually gives way to form a valley. Nope. I was wrong. Glaciers erode a valley by pushing down. The ice collects in areas on the mountain's face, and it is eventually heavy and dense enough to push the rock down, eroding the rock face away and hollowing out a valley from above. 

Hydrological Apex: Inside Glacier National Park you can see a peak considered to be the "hydrological apex" of North America. It's part of the Continental Divide, and it feeds into three different watersheds, eventually running into the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans.

That peak in the distance is the hydrological apex
of North America (so they say). 

After the tour, we were very hungry, and we decided to stop at the first place we saw in St. Mary. Just outside the park was the Snowgoose Grill. One look at the menu and we realized this was going to be the most expensive meal on our trip, by far. Oh well! We went for the whole thing—salads, drinks, entrees and desserts. We both had bison—stroganoff for Marybeth and meatloaf for me. I was uncertain, but it was actually really good. Tasted a lot more like beef than I expected.

Yes, we became "those" people who take food pictures. In our defense,
we were tourists, and it was pretty food. Bison meatloaf, salad topped
with a slice of watermelon radish (who knew such a thing existed?),
and apple-huckleberry crumble with huckleberry ice cream.
We were, apparently, in huckleberry country! 

By then it was getting a late, and we still had to drive roughly 2.5 hours back to the west side of the park where our hotel beds were waiting for us. It was a long day, but also my favorite one in the park.

Day 4: Two Medicine, A Purple Spoon, And On To Butte
The plan was to take a short jaunt to Two Medicine Lake (on the south east side) and then head part of the way home. We took, yet again, that southern route to the east side. We were pretty familiar with it by now and knew a few spots we wanted to stop. There was a nice river bend, a monument to Teddy Roosevelt, and some signage where the road crossed the Continental Divide. We were, um, very touristy during the drive to East Glacier this day.

The south route around the park follows this river for much of the way.

   

A monument to Theodore Roosevelt and the national
forest where it sits. I'm sure it's not a coincidence it
resembles the Washington Monument -- only smaller. 

We stopped for a photo-op where the
road crosses the continental divide.

One of the three Two Medicine lakes.
(Yeah, I'm not sure how those numbers work out either!)

The Two Medicine area was super crowded. In fact, we had to wait in line at the park entrance for a little while because they needed people to leave before they could let any more cars in. Parking was difficult, but we found what seemed like the last decent spot. We spent a little time taking pictures at the lake and spent a little money in the gift shop. I needed a Glacier NP key chain and some Huckleberry fudge! (It wasn't as good as I'd hoped.)

This is one of my favorite pics from this day. Cracks me up.
Some of the branches (behind Marybeth) end up growing
sideways because of the constant wind coming off the lake.
Marybeth decided to lean along with them. 

World's Largest Purple Spoon (perhaps)
East Glacier, MT

In East Glacier, outside the park, lives the world's largest purple spoon (Note the "perhaps" in parentheses at the bottom of the sign, though. Just covering their bases, I suppose!) So of course we stopped for a photo!

We were both overtired and overhungry at this point. And we learned our individual hangry personalities don't mesh well! Nothing in East Glacier looked workable—it was all so touristy and crowded and hot and arrrrgh, so we decided to drive the 12 miles or so into Browning, Montana, to find a place to eat a late lunch. Except... there really wasn't anything at all in Browning, and we were both 12 miles hungrier and tireder. Finally we settled on Subway, which was pretty much the only place in town other than a drive-in burger joint. And we both wanted (no, needed) to get OUT of the car! Marybeth later joked that she was nearly ready to push me out of the car anyway. At least, I think she was joking...

From Browning to Helena we drove through hours
of flat fields and prairie with gentle rolling hills.
I'll bet we could count the number of houses
(and cars) we passed on our four hands!

Then it was time to head south toward home. We decided we could make it to Butte, via Helena. The drive was so different from where we'd spent the last three days. No pines, no peaks, just fields and a few rolling hills. We remarked how amazing it was to find such a variety of landscapes in relatively close proximity.

We were definitely in the middle of nowhere, on small highways that linked up to other small highways without a lot of obvious markers. More than once I made Marybeth double check that we were still on the right route—and we only had to turn around once.

Day 5: Home (After An Unexpected Delay)
You'd think our adventure was coming to a close, but no; there was one more bit of fun left. After spending the night in Butte, we were packed up and quite ready to be heading home—already a little later than we wanted to be. But as we started the car, the tire pressure light came on, and stayed on. Marybeth found a Walmart just a few miles up the road, and we had them check it out. An hour or so later, (after some conversations in the waiting room with a couple traveling to Mount Rushmore and a nice but racist man from Kalispell), the Walmart guys had found and repaired a slow leak, a tiny hole in the tire. The delay was a little annoying, and it meant we hit Salt Lake right at rush hour. But truth be told, it could have been A LOT worse. We were on our way again, glad not to have had to deal with a flat tire (or worse) on the freeway. So we drove, and drove, and drove. Until we were home.

While waiting for the car in Butte, I also saw this video from Pass It On combining one of my favorite songs (John Denver's "Annie's Song") and some beautiful nature imagery. I'd never seen it before, and it seemed a perfect capstone to the natural wonders we'd spent days driving through and admiring. 

 Such a great trip, through awe-inspiring country, with a dear friend. Just lovely.

 Appendix 1: Reference Map of Glacier National Park

Appendix 2: Our Trip in Two Nutshells

Nutshell 1
Things I'm grateful for:

• Twenty-five years of friendship!
• My tiny car 
• Yummy hot hotel breakfasts
• Seeing the west side of the park just before it closed
• The Subway in Browning, MT
• A leaking tire that showed up overnight in a parking lot near a service center, and not in the middle-of-nowhere or on the freeway at 80 mph
• To have gone away
• To be home again

Nutshell 2

By the Numbers:

• Miles: 1,883.7
• Gas: $159.56
• Stops for gas, water, and/or Diet Coke: 10
• Hotel breakfasts: 4
• Hours together: 104.5
• Near-fatal disagreements: 1