Today we decided to see more of the park by travelling along the Going to the Sun Road. This road is famous for its amazing scenery and structure. This is probably the most scenic road in America and also the most scary. At least it was for me. This road travels through the park from the west entrance up and over the Continental Divide at the top before descending back down to the the east entrance. The road is very steep and windy. It is also very narrow with sheer drop offs on one side. Because of this, there are very strict restrictions on which kinds of vehicles can drive on this road. The scenery though was amazing and made the drive worth it.
There were some cool stops and look outs along the way. As we were traveling around, we noticed how green it was in July. The Forest Service told us it was because it has been an unusually wet year. Glacier National Park was made by glaciers and this was really obvious as we drove along this road. We could tell by the way the mountains and valleys were formed in a U-shape that the erosion and formation was caused by moving glaciers. If it had been formed by rivers and water, the valleys would have more of a V-shape. There were so many waterfalls also. The first waterfall in the picture above is the longest waterfall in the Park. It is Bird Woman Falls and it is 960 feet high. Each waterfall in the Park was unique in its own way.
As we drove up the road the view was amazing. It was so green in every direction. We drove through tunnels in the mountain and along hairpin turns called the Loop. We were able to see some actual glaciers from the road even though they were very far away. The mountain behind Emily and me in the picture above is called Heaven Peak. We thought this was a glacier but we found out it is not. At 8,987 feet, it is one of the highest peaks in the Park though. It is along the Livingston Range and there are three actual glaciers on that range though we did not see them.
As we continued driving, we were sprayed by water running off the mountain, we reached out and touched the mountain, and were in awe at the architecture of the bridges and rock work that formed the road. We stopped off first at the Haystack Creek falls.
This was a small waterfall that came off the snow pack and the water went under the road and down into the valley below. As we drove by, we could feel the water spray.
Next we drove passed Weeping Wall. This waterfall was actually water seeping straight out of the rock wall among the road. Our car actually got wet by driving by it. It was pretty awesome. There was a large pull off spot, called the Big Bend, near Weeping Wall so we decided to pull over and get out and look around.
This pull out lead to a little hiking trail that led to this fun little waterfall which was part of the Weeping Wall. The water was literally just coming out of the rocks.
This was a nice place to stretch our legs and get some cool pictures.
We spent most of the day just driving and stopping when we wanted to see something really cool. There was still some snow in some areas. As we were driving down the road, we came across some snow drifts on the side of the road. The snow drifts had some cool looking caves in them from the water running under them.
Colby and Russell decided to go out and see them and go inside the caves. It was like they were walking in and under a real glacier! They were lucky to see them that day because on another trip up we noticed that this mini glacier was melting away and almost gone.
Ever since we knew we were going on the trip, we heard about all the cool wildlife at Glacier and we hoped we would see some. As we drove up to Logan's Pass, we noticed a lot of cars on the side of the road looking at something. Sure enough, they were looking at a Grizzly!
The big brown bear was running out in the open chasing a mountain goat! As we were looking the bear, it climbed up on top of the rock and stood on its two legs. The kids were way excited to see a bear that close.
After all the excitement of the bear, we started on our way up to Logan's Pass. This was on our Glacier bucket list so we drove around the parking lot forever trying to find a spot to park. We were bummed because there was no parking at all. We decided to keep going and try Logan's Pass another day.
As we continued on Going to the Sun Road, we saw even more waterfalls on the east side of the Continental Divide.
This was just another smaller pull out on the east side of Logan's Pass. We were able to see where all of the waterfalls and river start on this side of the Divide and we were amazed at the scenery. The drive kept us all busy because the scenery kept getting better. Charlotte was loving every moment she could to get out of the car.
Our next short stop was the Jackson Glacier Overlook:
The snow capped mountain in the back there is actually a real glacier! The Jackson Glacier is about the 5th largest glacier of the remaining 25 glaciers in the Park. It is about 250 acres large. Just to the left of Jackson Glacier is Blackfoot Glacier. These two glaciers used to be connected but now, do to melting and erosion, they are two separate glaciers.
While at the Jackson Glacier overlook, we took a little hike down the trail and through a tunnel that went under the road. This trail was actually the trail head to the Gunsight Pass trail. This is one trail I really want to go on someday but it is really long (20 miles) and not meant for kids.
Our next stop was St. Mary's Lake. When we got to the parking area of St. Mary's Lake, we had lunch and relaxed for a bit. We then hiked down to the lake and it was really cool to see.
There was a big overlook where you could see the whole lake. All of the lakes were crystal clear and looked like glass. It was also really windy while we were up there. We knew a storm was coming because it got really windy and it was hard to walk against the wind.
One scary thing that happened was we thought Emily was going to fall off the cliff. The wind was so hard that her hat blew off and she went chasing it. We yelled for her to stop but she kept running toward the cliff. Finally the hat stopped blowing and she stopped running just before the edge. We were so scared and we told Emily to just let the hat go next time and don't worry about it. We were all shaken up by this so we got down off that rock and out of the wind.
While we were walking around by the lake back to the parking lot, a rain storm did come in and down poured on us. We all hurried to the bathroom area where there was an overhang. There were about 15 or so people with the same idea. We waited about 30 minutes for it to pass by and then we were off again for more hiking. We all wanted to hike around the lake to the St. Mary's Falls but Logan wanted to stay with Grandma and Grandpa in the truck. My parents did not want to hike an extra 2 miles so they decided to drive down to the actual St. Mary's Falls trail head instead of walking around the lake to get there. They took Logan with them while the rest of us hiked.
The whole lake was pretty big as you can tell from this picture. It was so green except for the burned areas from a fire they had a while back that took out thousands of acres of wild land. We loved walking around the lake even though we did get a little sprinkled on. The first part of the trail took us passed another water fall
This waterfall was called Baring Falls. This waterfall was pretty big and lots of water was coming out of it. It was really tucked back up into the mountain so if we hadn't followed the signs really well, we would have missed it.
We thought it was pretty amazing. All Colby and Emily wanted to do was throw rock in the river though.
After enjoying Baring Falls, we continued walking on to St. Mary's Falls. We met Grandma, Grandpa, and Logan about a half a mile later at the parking lot for the St. Mary's Fall. They joined us for the rest of the hike to the falls.
As we were walking, we ran into a ranger led group and the ranger was telling all of the hikers to watch out for bears. When we walked by, we noticed that the ranger had been pointing to some fresh bear scat! We all looked over our shoulders and all around after that. Finally we made it to the Falls!
There was so much water everywhere it was amazing to see it. Once again, we could not believe how clear and blue the water was.
It looked so good that I decided to get a drink out of the falls. Open wide!!! Okay, not really. Once again, we were not disappointed at our destination. It was definitely worth the hike. Russell and I wanted to continue on up the trail to Virginia Falls which was another two miles up the trail. Unfortunately though no one else wanted to and it was starting to rain again. We decided instead to head back to the truck.
On the way back we saw more wildlife. This deer was not even scared of humans, it just looked at us and kept eating. We got really close as we started up the trail and Russell probably could have pet it. Charlotte even got tired of being in the carrier and wanted to walk for a bit. She trekked along with the rest of us right up the hill. She loved it. Emily had her camera and was taking a lot of cool pictures of the scenery. Russell would pack Charlotte in her carrier for the hikes and when he got tired, I would switch him out. I don't know why but it seemed like every time he would get tired was right before we had to go up a hill so I ended up packing Charlotte up the hill. Coincidence? I don't think so... Every one was so good on the hikes.
We made our way back to the truck and then continued on down the Going to the Sun Road. When we got back to St. Mary's Lake, we stopped at a pull out to get a better picture of Wild Goose Island. It is the little dirt spec in the water behind us.
Wild Goose Island was one of the "must-sees" on the Glacier bucket list. So we had to see it. It was pretty cool and it is the only island in St. Mary's Lake. However, we will have to go back because the real beauty of this island is actually viewed from the other side. Looking at the island from the look out on the opposite side from where we are will actually take in the entire lake and the mountain ranges behind it and the island sits directly in the middle of it. We should have kept driving around...
Oh well this was still a good view. The reason this island is called Wild Goose Island is because of an old Native American legend. According to the legend, two separate Indian tribes lived on either side of the lake. One day a warrior from one tribe saw a maiden from the other tribe swim to the island. He decided to swim there as well. When they got to the island, they were both smitten with each other and decided to marry the next day. They each swam back to their tribes and told everyone. The tribes were very angry that they were marrying some one from outside the tribe. The warrior and the maiden decided to return to the island during the night before anyone knew. When the tribes found out they were gone, they were angry and went to the island to find them. Meanwhile the Great Spirit was watching over the couple and turned them into wild geese that mate for life. When the tribes arrived at the island all they could find were two geese. When the geese saw the tribes, they flew away never to be seen again. From that point on, the island was known as Wild Goose Island.
We decided to call it a day and head back to camp after that. As we drove back across the Going to the Sun Road, we saw all of the amazing scenery again. We decided to make one last stop at the McDonald Falls overlook.
This was another awesome waterfall along the river. This bridge also led to another hike called John's Lake Loop. We did not have time to do this hike so we definitely need to plan a return trip.
As we drove back to camp, we decided to end the day with a stop at the Apgar Village for some delicious Huckleberry ice cream for Russell's birthday.
We had read about this amazing ice cream shop called Eddie's and wanted to try it out. The reviews were right, this was a great place to get ice cream.
It was a great day and a fun birthday for Russell, outdoors with family, hiking around and seeing some amazing views. Happy Birthday Dad!!
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