We followed our biker buddies' advice and left Kalispell early and arrived at Glacier National Park at 8:00 AM and beat the Saturday crowd. We entered on the West Entrance off US Highway 2 (our friend). Getting in early was good also as the sun was in the right spot and the wind was still calm so I was able to get some photos with good reflections of the mountain in Lake McDonald.
We took the Going to the Sun Road along the lake and made numerous stops to see many of the sights. The temperature was 50 degrees as we entered the park and dropped to a low of 46 degrees as we climed. We were surprised as we were able to get close enough to get a good photo of a mama mountain goat and her kid!! We saw numerous waterfalls and patches of snow were everywhere.
We reached the visitor center at the top of Logan Pass at 6646 feet before the huge crowd arrived. The hour spent here was well worth the time and we could have spent the whole day. Not only did we see Marmots, Columbian Ground Squirrels, Mule Deer, and 11 male Big Horn Sheep but we were able to see Glacier Lillies and many other beautiful flowers. There were short hikes, intermediate hikes and longer hikes of 12 miles available. We saw skiers and snowboarders leave the area and climb to snow we could see that they were going to slide on down the hill!!!! Next time we will plan on at least 4 hours at the summit or longer. So much to see and so little time.
We left the visitor center and headed down passing the Continental Divide once more. The road was narrow and the views astonishing. We saw a yearling grizzly cross the road in front of us as we were stopped looking at a waterfall. We passed Saint Mary's Lake and exited on the east entrance at Saint Mary. We stopped for lunch and then headed off toward Great Falls.
Just after leaving the park area after lunch we saw a grizzly that gave us a show but was difficult to photgraph. He moved and somehow we were able to move closer to him and get some great photos. The only animal we had hoped to see that we didn't was a moose. Guess we will have to go back!!
We stopped for gas in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and then headed south. We changed our destination from Great Falls to Helena and saw more great country along the Missouri River. Will probably head more or less straight home from here as we have been gone for two weeks and need to see grandchildren and pay bills.
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