Dennis Dixon is heading West!: Day Twelve: Glacier National Park: Lake McDonald, Logan Pass, Kintla Lake

Glacier National Park is totally new to me. It is not "on the way" to anywhere, and it is not "near anybody". The only similar place I can think of in the Continental United States is Key West - you don't go "near there", you just "go there". And, of course this is a result of my East Coast/New England chauvinism - I'm sure 90% of the country feels the same way about Acadia National Park on the rugged coastline of Maine (but for me, Acadia seems relatively "next door"). As a result of this newness, I expected surprises today; I didn't expect the first one to be when I was going out of the supermarket:

Aren't you a long way from home? The Pacific Ocean is 450 miles away!

And then I got to GLACIER NATIONAL PARK!!

In the Apgar Visitor Center (for people coming in the west side of the Park) is a wonderful topo model of the Park:

There is a heavy cloud cover, with on-and-off sprinkles, and temperature in the low 50's - perfect for driving around, but maybe not ok for hiking. I started up Going-To-The-Sun Road, which runs east-west through the Park; unfortunately today is the first day of their "winter schedule", which means that winter weather forced the closing of the eastern half of the road. Well I'll just go up and back and do some hiking around here. Lake McDonald is in-your-face starting up the road (looking east, then back west)

A couple of things strike me - 1) there is rushing water (more-or-less) everywhere. I did not see any big waterfalls (no surprise given the time of the year), but the rivers, streams, and lakes are wonderful. 2) This is a "National Park", which means that it is managed - even the "unmanaged wilderness" is managed by being left alone. I think that if you want more of an untamed experience, visit the National Forests - they are huge swaths of land that, although some people live on them, there are no Park Rangers, and if you encounter any people at all (fellow hikers, trail workers), it feels sort of random. McDonald Creek empties into Lake McDonald, and a nice viewing area has been constructed

As opposed to tall soaring jagged peaks, these mountains are MASSIVE - is that a glacier up there?

Logan Pass was freezing (36 degrees), the wind was howling, and it was raining/sleeting/hailing. What a fun vacation!

Unfortunately the weather hampers the views (sort of like "conceptual fireworks" on a foggy Fourth of July in Edgartown), but there are glimpses of majesty. The scale out here is much larger than what I am used to, and it helps to concentrate on a car-in-the-distance or a single steam to get a sense of the grandeur

and sometimes the sun breaks through for a moment

I had lunch back outside the Park at the Glacier View Golf Club - soup, sandwich, and a cup of coffee.

I was going to go back to the Super 8 - maybe take a nap (yesterday had been a big day). Also when I was at the Visitor Center the Park Ranger had told me that the Going-To-The-Sun Road was the only road in the Park - I certainly was not going to do any hiking today. But at lunch I took a close look at the map

and saw that, hey, there is a road running northwest inside the Park boundary ("Inside North Fork Road") and it runs parallel to one outside the boundary ("Outside North Fork Road"). Since "North Fork" could be the name of a river, this could be a beautiful drive! and so I thought "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" and headed back into the Park. I saw that I could go as far as Polebridge, and maybe even up to Kintla Lake. Well, the road wasn't much of a road, but hey, Upper Pine Street in Manchester-by-the-Sea is worse than this!

The views and forests are wonderful, and they have 10-year-old growth everywhere (in 2003 13% of the Park burned)

The North Fork Flathead River is very impressive! I met Katie there, who also had a Subaru Outback (although hers was rented)

I saw a couple of deer, who stopped to pose for me

After driving through the Big Prairie area

I made it to Kintla Lake (the body of the Lake is 2 miles from the Canadian border - I was at the bottom, about 4 miles from the border), and had a nice walk & talk with Brian and Melissa from St. Louis

It was a long drive (1-and-1/2 hours) back to Columbia Falls, on "Montana roads" (dirt!). Wendy's car got a little dirty

but a quick trip to the car wash allowed us to end the day squeeky clean!

Monday, Sept. 23
Glacier National Park: Lake McDonald, Logan Pass, Kintla Lake

here is today's playlist:

Jackson Browne - Looking East [because the Super 8 is west of the Park]