Glacier day 2,3 and 4

We could stretch this out for 2 postings but lets just get Glacier National Park behind us and this posting will cover 3 days traveling in the park. As we sit and work up this posting we just finished our first, over 300 mile day through Montana and will be spending our first night in North Dakota. Highway 2 across the north side of Montana was a great road with very little traffic so for most of the time we owned the road.

Lets get back and cover the remainder of our time in Glacier. Day 2 was another beautiful day with just some small clouds drifting in and out of our view. We moved to Summit National Forest Campground that is located on the Continental Divide at over 5,200' of elevation. We set up camp, got out our new Honda 2000I camo generator so we could keep our batteries charged up. Out came the lawn chairs and spent the afternoon enjoying the warm weather.

The next day we decided to try another less traveled road and headed for Two Medicine on of all places Two Medicine Lake. It was a windy day and there were lots of whitecaps on the lake. We checked out the campground. Lots of spaces that we could fit into except the warning signs on the road getting here says 21' max length. There were people camping there with rigs a lot longer than 21'. We may try it someday except if you come in via East Glacier you have to go under the train overpass that has a 13' clearance, and the top is arched.

There was some color in the underbrush.

This, and the one above, are the view from the campground.

We took a short hike to Running Eagle Falls, a very unique falls because the water runs through the side of the hill rather than over it. Notice the young lady on the right side of the falls to give an example of size.

Day 3 was a very interesting day because of the change in the weather. Jackie's birthday brought lots of rain and the first snow of the year in the park. This day we headed to the town of St. Mary and then continued north to Many Glacier entrance.

On the way up the east side of the park we ran across several rainbows and were able to find a spot off the side of the road to enjoy the view.

The weather continued to get worse and the cloud ceiling came down to the deck as we progressed west into the park. This was an interesting shot as Dick jumped out of the truck and ran up the hill to get this shot only to find that just over the first ridge was the roof of the lodge. He backed up 3 steps and was able to get this shot.

And this is the lodge looking back a little further up the road. What a neat place to stay and just admire the view out your window.

Just another view of the beauty of this area of the park.

Still at Summit camp where the snow came down to just a few feet above our elevation but it got cold that night with ice on the truck windows in the morning, happy birthday Jackie.

Our last day here we decided to make the trip back up to St. Mary and then take the Going-to-the sun road. The road was only open to the ranger station at Logan pass but there was lots to see. On the way into the park we got this shot showing the fresh snow in the Park.

We kept looking for black bear and I think we found 4 grazing on the side of the hill. We are sure these are bears, honest. Actually we did see one crossing the road and into the brush between the entrance and the St. Mary Campground, but it was too far away to get a picture.

Looking down onto Saint Mary Lake with a small island just to the left of the stump. Did we mention that now that Jackie's birthday is over the sun came out to give us lots of blue sky. Still cold and windy but nice clean air with lots of new snow.

About 10 years ago we took this same road but going the other way and when we got to Ranger Station at the top of Logan Pass it was socked-in with fog. Guess what folks...

On the way back down is this huge valley, surrounded with the mountains of the park with the river running down it's base.

Turning around and looking up the valley you can just see the visitors center just at the snow line and now that we are on our way down it looks nice and clear up there.

That's our four days at Glacier National Park and we hope to return some day and do it all over again. Maybe go Canada and check out the north end of the park.

To be continued...