Thursday August 6 (Logan Pass, Glacier Park)

A cold front moved through overnight so it was much cooler with a lot of black clouds and showers. 
There was a lovely rainbow over the mountains as I had my coffee and pastry for breakfast at Brownies Cafe.

I walked down to Glacier Lodge to catch the red bus for the tour, the colour is actually Mountain Ashbury Red. These buses were built in the early twentieth century and all but the body have been replaced by the Ford Motor Company at the cost of $250,000 per bus (they were deemed unsafe in 1999).

They can run on propane as well as gasoline and weigh about 15,000 lbs, a very heavy vehicle. The lobby at Glacier Park Lodge was built from 24 Douglas firs and is a magnificent sight. Our driver's name was Karl and we then set off to Logan Pass via the west side as part of the Circle to the Sun road is closed due to fire.

 The railroad has had a huge effect upon the area and really lead to the development of the area. 

A guy called James J Hill, known as an Empire builder, wanted to find a route for the Great Northern Railroad through to Seattle so he could set up trade routes to the Far East. 


He employed a John Stevens to find a route which he eventually did but totally by accident. He was walking in the snow to keep warm and noticed the streams had changed direction. He realised this meant the pass was close by. This is the Marias pass, the lowest through the Rockies on the western side.

There is a statue of John Stevens at a memorial we stopped at in the pass. There is also a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt who was a great supporter of the National Parks, it is a replica of the Washington memorial.


The western continental divide is in this area and, as the water flows three ways, but it is not a true tri-vide as it does not flow to three oceans. It flows to the Gulf of Mexico, Hudson Bay and the Pacific Ocean. 

At the back of the Athabaskan Glacier is the only true trivide as the water flows to the Arctic, the Pacific Ocean and the  Atlantic Ocean. Most of lodges were built for the railroad as that was originally the only mode of transport, apart from horses, throughout the area.

We had a rest stop at the Izaac Walton Inn, named after a Welshman who wrote a book on fly fishing in the 1600s. He had never visited the area! Amtrak operates a flag stop here (Essex) and the Inn is open all year round. There are converted railway carriages and an engine that can be booked for a stay. 

On the way, we had also passed the inevitable snow sheds that protect the railroad from avalanches and rock falls.

The Great Northern railway was responsible for building lots of chalets and lodges. Only two of the chalets are left, one of them, Granite Park Lodge people have to hike to and take all their own food with them. The other, Sperry Lodge, is fully serviced and people can hike in or ride a horse.

The largest wilderness area in continental USA is adjacent to Glacier National Park in the area we passed through. 

We also passed a huge group getting ready to raft the Flathead River, this is another popular pastime, and saw many cyclists again! 


We eventually turned off highway 2 and entered the park at the West Glacier entrance. We followed the road beside a stream for some way until we reached Lake McDonald,

The largest in the park being 10 miles long. We stopped at the spot where, in 2003, a bad fire destroyed 13% of the trees over on the far side of the lake, it was started by careless camper.

We stopped at Lake McDonald Lodge for lunch and, as it was raining, I was able to eat my packed lunch inside the lobby, so no scenic view for lunch today! Over the fireplace were some drawings in the stone made by some local Indians centuries ago. I was able to go outside and take a photo of Lake McDonald afterwards. I also purchased a cheap poncho here to throw over me if it rained. As it had stopped raining, the roof was rolled back before we carried on our merry way, so we became a convertible, lol!

Mr Mather, a very wealthy man spent his own money to employ people to work on the parks. He loved the outdoors and wanted to improve the upkeep of the parks. He had plans for Glacier Park and conscripted two men to help him build a road. One wanted a series of switchbacks while the other wanted to build on the garden wall, basically along the cliff face, so people could enjoy the view.  After much discussion with different people it was decided on the latter approach. The road was built by 300 people, mainly Italians and Russians, and, surprisingly, only 3 died. It was the first road to be given a civil engineering award.

What an incredible drive it was up the garden wall with Heaven's Peak behind and to the right of us. There was only one switchback on the road, it is called The Loop, LOL! We stopped a couple of times for photos and saw the Weeping Wall (in spring water flows out of the wall), Bird Woman Falls and Haystack Creek as well as Hanging Valleys, waterfalls and small snowfields.

We passed Mt Oberlin which is called a horn as it was formed by glaciers on three sides of it. At one stop, the roof had to be placed back over the bus as it was raining again. We reached Logan Pass, 6,460 feet, the highest part of road, it felt pretty cold and was apparently only 42 degrees!

We spent a wee while at the pass and a bear was spotted but some noisy motor were leaving and spooked him so I did not get the opportunity to see it, apparently it was a large black bear. People were walking on the hiking track near to the area, not sure I would have gone there so soon!

We left the pass and descended down the same road. Karl stopped and pointed out three glaciers but they were very difficult to pick out in the low cloud. Along the way we stopped at Red Rocks, a beautiful place with rocks, Small rapids and a wonderful emerald pool.
Most of the lodges and chalets are built along the style of a log cabin and they merge into the trees very well. There are many such buildings scattered around the area, both inside and outside the park. We stopped at the bottom end of Lake McDonald and it is almost more beautiful from that end.

Throughout Glacier National Park there are over 700 miles of hiking trails and 95% of the area is wilderness. The natural vegetation is rain forest but when fires go though the vegetation changes and a species of pine becomes the major tree. There were 180 Glaciers at the end of the nineteenth century, there are now only 25.

Finally, we drove out of the park and back onto Highway 2 to East Glacier. The weather, of course, had improved somewhat and we were bathed in sunlight for the drive home. but it was a great day out amongst some spectacular scenery.

I wandered over to the small restaurant over the road and had Ribs for dinner, they were tender and tasty, lovely meal! It was fairly windy and cool this evening although not too much cloud around.