Sunday, August 4th, 2013 – Glacier Park
Whitefish was packed with tourists; many of them from Canada. We were certain that Glacier Park would also be packed. They have had record crowds for the last several consecutive years and this year would be no different. They are on track to receive 2.5 million visitors this year. When you consider that Glacier Park has a relatively short season – the Road to the Sun Road that traverses the park from east to west and north to south is only fully opened from June through the end of September, that’s a lot of visitors in a relatively short amount of time. In an effort to beat some of the crowds, our friends suggested that we consider taking the Red Bus. Elisa was fortunate to book us seats on the 11:45 tour.
The Red Bus is a fleet of 33 Ford caravans that were originally put into service in the 1930’s. There were also several of these buses put in service in Yellowstone. In the 1990’s the buses were becoming difficult and expensive to maintain. At that time a non-profit foundation was established and funds were raised to have the buses all sent to Dearborn, MI where they were fully refurbished and the original bodies were installed on new Ford truck chassis and outfitted with propane power plants. They now run like new but retain all the original ambiance of the old time caravans. Our driver Norm would take us the 35 miles up the steep mountain road that is named “Road to the Sun”. We would only be going to Logan Pass, which is the summit and forms the Continental Divide. The road was built in the 1930’s and it was very difficult to carve the road into the side of the mountain. In parts arched bridge ways were built to suspend the roadway in sections that were too difficult to carve the road into the mountain.
The first stop on our trip was to Visitor Center where we picked up another passenger. Then we went 10 miles up the road to McDonald Inn on the shores of Lake McDonald. The historic Inn was originally built on this site in 1895 by George Snyder as a hunting lodge. In 1930’s when it became a national park, the original building was moved to nearby location and a new swiss chalet style hotel was built in 1914. At that time, there was no road to the hotel. Guests would have to board a boat and take the boat to the end of Lake McDonald to arrive at the Hotel. It is for this reason that the Front entry to the Hotel still faces the lake to this day. So today, guests enter the hotel through the doors that were intended to be the rear exit to the hotel.
After this quick stop, we began our steep ascent toward the Logan Pass Visitor center. We would rise about 2800 feet in elevation over a 20 mile stretch. Norm shared with us an interesting story as to how the route for the road came to be. The story was interrupted by traffic coming to a stop because there was a bear in the middle of the road. It was a young black bear, probably recently chased away by its mother – that’s what they do when the cubs are about 2 years old. The bear was confused and finally scampered right by our bus and then headed off into the woods. Check it off the list – we got to see a bear.
The views along the way were absolutely fabulous and Norm was a wealth of information. He clarified for me that Glacier Park was not really about seeing glaciers, although there are still about 25 glaciers in the park. This park is about looking at the landscape that ancient glaciers were able to carve. The glaciers that exist today are the remnants of a much smaller glacial event that happened about 600 years ago. However, it is estimated that all the glaciers in the park will be gone by 2020. This will be a shame as features like Haystack Falls are only there because of the melt from snow and glaciers.
Eventually, we got to the summit – Logan’s Pass at about 6200 feet elevation. This region forms a very unique three way continental divide. It is one of only 3 on the earth. At this point water is shed to the east and west where the water ends up in the Pacific or the Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico but also to the north where it flows out through Hudson Bay. The summit was packed with tourists. Once again, we heard a lot of different languages. The little gift shop in the visitors office was doing a booming business. Eventually we made our way back to the bottom of the mountain and we completed a 4 hour tour. Norm did a great job. The old time buses were great but a little cramp for folks with my athletic physique. I don’t think I could have tolerated a longer tour.
We dropped by our friends Brad and Robin to say farewell. While exiting their place we saw a doe and her fawn on the hillside.
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