On day two of the road trip we headed to Glacier National Park. Of course I had forgotten my lifetime senior National Park pass at home, but I was able to buy another one at the gate, so I still saved $20. This one is wallet-sized, so I can keep it with me.

The one thing about Glacier National Park, like many other national parks is that it can’t be captured in words or even in photos. I can offer glimpses but they do not capture the expansive beauty. The quote by naturalist George Bird Grinnell displayed on the wall of the visitor center at Logan Pass that I used as the title of this post says it best.

The National Park Service does a good job of making it convenient to leave your car behind. They have a good free shuttle service set up with hop-on, hop-off service. (Similar to the shuttles I used in Zion and Grand Canyon.) We left our car at the Apgar Visitor Center and took the shuttle on the Going-To-The-Sun Road (I love that name). While waiting for the shuttle, I noticed a couple who just looked interesting to me.

I struck up a conversation with Ann and Greg Morley which continued on the shuttle. Greg builds custom cedar canoes in a little town to the south, Swan Lake. He had previously worked for the State of Oregon and years ago they decided to do something different. So they moved back to Montana and started the canoe business. As a wanna-be word worker, I was interested in seeing the operation, and hoped we could go that direction when we headed south. (Spoiler alert: we did visit there.) Besides the beauty of this park and the beauty of the state as a whole, the same can be said about the people we came in contact with. Everywhere people were friendly and helpful, and you can tell that they love living in Montana.

Our first stop was at Lake MacDonald. This is where we got our first real view of the scenery.

 

 

 

We ate lunch at the historic lodge, built from big trees (with the bark still on them) and with its massive fireplace.

We hopped off again at Avalanche Creek, where we took a short, easy hike on the Trail of the Cedars, passing this beautiful scene at Avalanche Creek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we headed to Logan Pass, the highest point in the park, on the continental divide. The drive had spectacular views, but we were glad that we had chosen not to drive. The road was steep, winding and narrow. It would have been impossible for one of us to both drive and watch the scenery.

Once at the top, we took a hike. It went straight up hill. (Janie and Leslie: It was like the path up to Dun Aengus in Ireland, except this path was dry and had wooden steps instead of slippery stones.)

 

 

 

 

 

The view was fantastic from the top of the world. We were at the Continental Divide, the dividing line where streams flow East or West.

We headed back down in the late afternoon, still with no firm destination or room reservation, but we settled on Whitefish, a recreation-oriented town that is a skiing destination in winter and fishing, boating, biking and hiking destination in summer.

We got a room at the Stumptown Inn, tired looking on the outside, but nice on the inside.