Going-to-the-Sun Road and Glacier National Park

2011 October 5, 7:28 am
Filed under: J-Mo, There and Back Again

A few weeks ago J-Mo and I went on a much needed break to Glacier National Park in northern Montana. Glacier is known for amazing hiking and a very short summer season. One of the most gorgeous stretches of road in the country, the Going-to-the-Sun Road, goes through the park and in mid-June it was still buried under several feet of snow. Opening in July and already closed for the year, the window to experience this drive is pretty narrow.

The Going-to-the-Sun Road was built as part of FDR’s New Deal social spending, it is 50 miles long and quite narrow, the winding road hugs the side of the cliff with a thousand plus foot drop-off on one side and views that take your breath away.

Luckily, J-Mo and I were on a motorcycle, so we got to drink up as much of the gorgeous views as were there to enjoy.

The Going-to-the-Sun Road snakes to about the center of this photo, see that skinny little line heading up the side of the mountain? Yeah, that’s the road. And it is incredible.

Even though it was late August, the green in the park was so vibrant because, well, it was technically still “spring” in Glacier.

I can’t get enough of this view. This Glacier trip came on the heels of one of the more emotional weeks I’ve ever had (which is saying a lot as the last week of my life reduced me to tears at least a half-dozen times. See: midterms, college is hard, PMS, palpable loneliness, etc.) Spending six or seven hundred miles on the back of a motorcycle, the wind in my hair and clothes, sun on my face and my arms wrapped around J-Mo was the best possible thing I could have done at the time. Come to think of it, perhaps I need some more of this therapy? I’ll look into it.

Taken near the summit of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, looking down into the park.

J-Mo and I, in all my Harley glory. Jacket? Check. Biker headband? Check. Real biker? Ehhhh…probably not, the Mo family are hardcore Harley people, I am an excellent weekend warrior.

Stopped for construction traffic just shy of Logan Pass, looking down the canyon with the road on the right.

In our two days in the park, J-Mo and I went up and down the Going-to-the-Sun Road twice, once in the early evening when the setting sun turns the world into a jewel box of gorgeous light, and once in the morning when, despite the chilly temperatures, the morning light made everything sparkle. Yes, the mountains sparkled. Don’t try and contradict me on this one. I took hundreds of photos from my perch on the back of the Harley, but I also want you to see more of Glacier than this one road, despite it’s gorgeousness.

Lake McDonald, view from the pier at the lodge. The reflection on the lake was absolutely beautiful, the lodge was calm and reminiscent of the enormous grand lodges of last century, not quite as big as the one in Yellowstone, but still very impressive.

This is the opposite side of the park from Lake McDonald. This small glacier-melt lake is in West Glacier at the European-chalet style lodge and you can see 5 remaining glaciers from the expansive deck looking over the water. Can I point them out here? No. (Evidence that I really should blog about things as they happen instead of wait for two months when I no longer remember names and details. Noted.) The thing I really recall about this particular lodge is the huckleberry soft-serve ice cream that changed my life, and staring at the mountain side for what seemed like hours trying to locate the bears. Yes, bears. Bears wandering around the trails, preventing hiking. Bears that dozens of people claimed to have seen. Bears which, according to me and my perfect vision were completely non-existent. I feel like I should have been upset about the wildlife messing with my hiking plans, but by this point J-Mo and I had been on a motorcycle for a couple of hundred miles and the idea of relaxing on the wide, sunny deck at the lodge eating ice cream sounded much better than sweating my way up the side of a mountain.