charismatic megafauna since 1985

Glacier National Park

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to touch a glacier. The closest one was a 11-mile round trip hike from the other side of the park, the ranger told us. We arrived around sunset on the west end of the park and camped at the Apgar Campground. When we’d packed up and gotten to the visitor’s center, it was almost 9:30am. With a 2.5 hour drive to the start of the hike, it wasn’t going to happen.

Instead, we drove as far as we could up Going-to-the-sun Highway, called the most scenic highway in the States. It’s the only landmark to be both a National Historical Landmark and a Civil Engineering Landmark. It’s embedded in the side of the mountains, with the pavement going all the way to the rock on the inside and right off the slope on the other. When we drove up it was bit gray and foggy, but it cleared up enough for us to have plenty of beautiful views of the Continental Divide and the mountains around it.

At the top of the highway is Logan Pass. At 6,684 feet it’s also one of the highest points we’ve been along the trip. Just after the pass is closed for construction (there’s a very limited window between the end of peak tourist season and winter for construction, so there’s a lot of it going on), but we took a quick walk up towards Hidden Lake to stretch our legs and see some mountain sheep. They weren’t doing anything interesting, but they were the only wildlife we saw in the park itself.

We drove around to the eastern side of the park in the afternoon so Gaea could at least see a glacier. With the pass closed, it’s a long drive to go all the way around the park. We got there with plenty of time to see the Jackson Glacier, though, and someone had binoculars so we could get a good look at it. Hopefully everyone got a good look, because the park’s scientists are predicting that they’ll all be gone by 2030.