Indiana to Alaska and Back

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Glacier National Park

We were SO lucky. We drove our car into Glacier National Park on an absolutely gorgeous day. Sunny and very warm. No clouds. Very little haze. Perfect conditions for seeing this lovely creation of God's hand.

The "Going to the Sun Road" is a civil engineering marvel. Completed in 1932 it winds its way through rugged, jagged, vertical, high mountains. As you will see in the pictures, "the road" has not been widened since its completion. It is a wall of stone on one side of the road and a 200 to 800 foot drop on the other side of the road. The road would not accommodate two motor homes or semis. (there's a 21' length limit and a 8' width limit including mirrors). When two drivers hug the yellow center line to avoid the rocks or the drop, they could meet by accident when rounding a tight turn. Some drivers just don't know the location of their fenders when being 6 feet from the drop-off instead of 3 feet. Oh, I almost forgot, there is a 2-3 foot stone wall along the drop-off to slow your descent. LOL !!

Words escape the author in describing the awesomeness of this park. So . . . . . some pictures will not be accompanied by a caption. Just look, enlarge the image, and enjoy. We certainly did.

Sadly, our adventure is about to be over. Tonight we're sitting in Billings, Montana. We drove 489 miles today (all in Montana) in a little over nine hours. We expect that we will be back home Sunday or Monday (August 4th or 5th) after some lengthy days of driving (we've seen the middle of America many times so no need to drag our feet getting home).

We hope that you have enjoyed sharing our trip with us on this blog. We had a lot of fun putting it together. Feel free to share the blog address with folks you think might enjoy it.

Entering Montana - we're back in the lower 48

Our campsite in St. Mary - outside the east entrance of Glacier National Park

Camp site view towards Glacier National Park

Old tour buses at the entrance of Glacier National Park

Entrance sign

Sunrift Gorge - upper rapids

Sunrift Gorge - middle rapids

Sunrift Gorge - lower rapids

Tunnel - roadway was completed in 1932

Male Bighorn Sheep with big horns - seen at Logan Pass

Waterfall & Cascade

Hikers 500 ft up on what looks like a narrow ledge

Our road eventually descends to the river down in the valley

We'll be going through this tunnel in the middle of the picture - BUT the road swings around it on top and we end up driving through it towards the camera! We were surprised!

Bird Woman Falls

Curvy, narrow road (obviously no shoulders)

Looking UP through the sun roof of our car

Crystal clear water of McDonald Creek - it was very blue

MAW at McDonald Falls

SLW at McDonald Falls

McDonald Falls

Lake McDonald

West Glacier entrance gate - ready to return to the east gate on the same road

Tour bus

Curvy, narrow road approaching a bridge

Believe us - it's not this wide

Mountain goat resting near the road

The Going to the Sun Road opened this year on June 19th after lots of snow removal

View from inside a tunnel

Wild Goose Island in St. Mary Lake

Goodbye Alaska - - Headed to the lower 48

All fun comes to an end. We enjoyed our time in Alaska. First, the cruise accompanied by our dear friends Joyce and Danny Culver. Then a four week land tour in our motor home. We feel that we saw or did most of what was desired and expected in our pre trip planning. We took 2,000 + pictures in Alaska. Now we have to decide how to archive them. We don't think that we want a "hard copy" of each one. Well, that's for later.

Our trip through the Yukon Territory and British Columbia was different because we took a different route home. We followed the Klondike Highway out of Skagway, caught Highway 8 (a shortcut to the Alaska Highway), followed the Alaska Highway to Watson Lake where we turned south on the Cassiar Highway, then turned east on Highway 16. We camped in an Indian campground along a river in Tagish, YT, a nice private campground near Iskut, BC, a municipal campground in Smithers, BC, a nice private campground in McBride, BC, and then a campground in Banff National Park in Alberta Province. Yes, five overnight stays in Canada. It's an unbelievably long distance from the border of Alaska to the Montana border.

We saw Jasper National Park at it's brilliant best but the rain and clouds moved in for Lake Louise and Banff National Park. That was a disappointment. On a side note: Canadian signage for first time tourists traveling the highways and byways or visiting the major national parks could be improved. Signs too small to read going 45- 55 mph. Often no signs at all pointing to some of the beautiful wonders of nature that you're passing. Without the book "Mile Post" and brochures picked up along the way, we would not have known what is outside the windows of the car.

Each section of the road offered it's own nugget of beauty. We had to do it once to see it and it was truly worth it. Next time, and we hope there's a next time, we may take the marine highway ferry.

Lime Mountain across Tagish Lake - the mountain is white stone, not snow covered