Trip to Glacier National Park

On Friday  Sept 7 I took off for my Glacier N. Park Trip.  Far enough away it had to be a two day trip.

Didn't get 3 miles up Hwy 28 before someone ahead must have rolled their car.  20 min. wait.

But I don't believe in Omens!  This is all open range and big horn sheep are around with deer and eventually.....bear. 

The orange line marks the area I rode.

Rode up through Kalispell to the West Glacier Entrance.  My Old Fogy Pass (that I'm a year too young for) got me in for free! Got the pass a couple months ago at Mt. Rainier for $10 lifetime normally $80/ yr.  It's good to be old!
 
   I'm headed up to the Rising Sun camp ground on the east side of the Continental Divide and want to get there before it fills. Had to stop at Lake McDonald to get this beautiful but sad tel tale.  What Fire can do.

and what survived

  
 

Before making it to Logan Pass at the 'Top' of the Divide I got waylayed again only this time  by construction which pretty much is ongoing all the time.  So it was a chance for pictures.

 

By the time I got to the pass I decided to keep going to the camp and then backtrack for sunset since the construction was west of the pass.  Was a good idea because the camp filled up that night.

 

After I set up the tent I went back up to get pictures of Logan Pass and the Majesty of the area.  That is one word, cathedral, marvel, magnificent.....none can really do justice to this place.  Mountains give such size and depth to their surroundings and neither pictures nor words can describe accurately what the eye can take in. But oh what the hell, here are some anyway.

  I stayed at the top to watch the sun start to hide
  then headed down and watched the shadows rise

One of the reasons for Rising Sun campground is it is a great location to watch a sunrise.....and so I did.

as the sun comes

  The light starts at the top and when it gets almost to you ....





you can turn around and see it come up over the ridge top


         This is St. Marys Lake near camp

 

everywhere you turn there are rangers and signs warning of bears.  So everyone gets a little paranoid and they take pepper spray and bells with them and you're supposed to shout at trail turns to keep from surprising them.  So I sang some tunes on a hike I took but I got the surprise!

 

Holly bear crap it turned out to be a stump!

 

 One of the remaining Glaciers that are receding

  No more pictures, but a good story:

The realtor handling the house was trying to get hold of me but I couldn't get good enough reception to reply.  So Saturday I broke camp and took off in a hurry (after pictures and a hike) to lower elevation where I hoped to contact her.  The Sheriff didn't appreciate my haste and scolded me because bears also frequent the road! She (the sheriff) was somewhere between Shel and Gina in age so I was used to the scolding and got off on good behavior!  Finally got down to civilization and found out there was an offer on the house!  I had to beat feet to Kalispell but had to go US 2 because it was 'quicker'. Yah, but how many troupers? Got to a STAPLES where I got my email, printed off the documents I had to sign, scanned them and emailed them back to Olympia and all is well.

Wow!! teknowlgy shure is kool!!  Course, there wasn't anyplace from St. Marys on the East side to Kalispell that had the capability of doing all that so not everywhere is technoligized. (my word)