Date: 28 July 2001 (Saturday)

Start:

End: KOA West Glacier, West Glacier MT (0 miles)

The temperature was 48f when I got up because it was cold in the trailer. The aft propane tank had run out. I switched to the forward tank and we got comfortable again. When we arose for good it was 52f and cloudy; the temperature never got above 72f all day.

We had breakfast and headed out to explore. Just inside the park, Dolores spotted a female deer eating in the margin on the west side of the road. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center to see if Pat Rielly was around; he was off duty today, so we left a few Submarine Centennial pins for him.

Then we headed off on the Going to the Sun Highway from the West Glacier end.

The view up Lake McDonald with the mountains in the background is beautiful with the sun in the southeast to add depth to the pictures. We made several photo stops.

There is a hiking trail at The Cedars where a small valley traps moisture and western hemlocks and red cedars grow well. We hiked that, and found a queer watercourse, very narrow, with scooped out holes left by water flow in past centuries.

The trees were interesting, in that they can’t grow deep roots on the rock. They grow intricate surface root systems, but that leaves them vulnerable to wind. The valley has many downed trees feeding nutrients back into the ground.

Another hike farther up the road was Sunclift Trail, where we found another very narrow watercourse feeding water down into a basin where it could gather strength and fall into the lake.

After leaving Lake McDonald, the road starts a serious climb. The speed limit is 25mph. It clings to the edge of a cliff in places, where blasting had to have been done to create it. Only a small stone edging and small wall separate you from a swift trip to the bottom of the canyon. It sneaks off up a feeder valley and does a switchback in it to continue gaining altitude toward the head.

At one point on the road, there’s a wall to the north side that has nearly-continuous small waterfalls on it. It’s called the Weeping Wall for some reason. After that there was a section of road that couldn’t even fit into the side of the mountain. Arches were built so that the road hangs over the edge of the valley.

There’s a stop on the road where you can look back down the valley from platforms. We stopped because Dolores saw a goat. We took pictures of the camp Mountain Goat, which stood within 15 feet of people as though he expected to be fed at any moment. Then we found one far up on a cliff doing what goats ought to do and watched it for a while. We also saw a couple of Columbian Ground Squirrels doing their act.

Finally, we arrived at Logan Pass at 6600 feet. There’s a visitor center there, which we skipped due to the number of people already there. We went on, stopping now and then to look around or let Dolores take pictures of wildflowers. Incidentally, she rates the wildflowers here to be the best assortment of the trip.

Onward, down the valley to the end of the highway at Saint Mary. We stopped there to have a hamburger-type lunch in the café and look through the store.

To get back to West Glacier, you take US-89 south, then MT-49 back to US-2 to West Glacier, doing the south half of the loop. US-89 is great for a while, then deteriorates into a two-lane road with a 35mph speed limit winding up and down hills. After you branch off onto MT-49, it gets worse in terms of highway, but better in terms of scenery.

We took several more pictures along this road, some for Dolores wildflower craze and some because you could see the mountains in Glacier Park at a different but very interesting angle.

We took US-2 west, paralleling the old Great Northern railroad route. This route was used because Marias Pass is lower than any other pass over the Continental Divide from here south.

It must have been quite an undertaking, building and operating in this pass. The grades are steep and there are numerous snow sheds supported by massive wooden beams over the track to keep them clear in winter.

At one point, a "Goat Lick" roadside stop is noted. We pulled in out of curiosity (wouldn’t you?). One runs a bit down-hill into a parking lot, then hikes 100 yards to an overlook. There, you see a large area of exposed rock, as though the cliff had been ripped off. Next to that is an area of exposed rock and gravel tumbling down the hill.

It turns out that minerals leech out onto the rock face and into the gravel over the winter. In June and July, the mountain goats make trips here to lick at the face of the mountain to take in these minerals, which help balance their systems.

Others were there when we walked up. They were discouraged and left soon, saying they hadn’t seen anything. Dolores immediately found four goats at the tree line on the left of the rock face. We watched them, other people came along, we all watched them then as they walked down the side of the rock face to the creek for water. They certainly are confident walking on the side of the mountain. There were two large goats and two babies, who seemed to be as agile as the parents.

Then we went onward into West Glacier and into the park again to shop at the craft shop. We found a few things there, and left the park; on the way out Dolores spotted another (the same?) deer on the other side of the road in about the same place. Then we went to refuel for tomorrow in Coram, again.

We returned to the little house in the big campground and took it easy for a bit, partly due to the intermittent rain that came in with the cold front in the early afternoon.

We decided to go out for dinner and wound up at "Heaven’s Peak", a new massive log house restaurant nearby. The salmon was outstanding with a good sauvignon blanc. The place has a lot of deck area, so they probably serve a lot of their customers outside in the summer. That was certainly messed up by the rain.

Our server, after she found out we were from Virginia, volunteered she’d be visiting Charlottesville to see her friend next fall. The friend also works there now, but will join her boyfriend there in the fall. We told them to ask said boyfriend if he knows what a Gusburger is (if you don’t know, don’t ask – it’s a thing UVA undergrads eat when under the influence of something).

Then we returned to the campground to settle in for the night and prepare to travel tomorrow.