Glacier National Park

Getting to Glacier is not the easiest but you want to see it (and it is worth it). After a night on the road at the Smelterville, Idaho, Walmart, we drove into Columbia Falls RV about 2PM. It was a beautiful drive -- much like the Columbia River Gorge. The mountains were covered with velvet like moss and there were a lot of farm animals--cows, horses, goats--lots of animal farms, no crops were seen. The days are extremely long--sun-up 6am- dark about 10pm.  Early Saturday morning we head into the park and Go-to-the-Sun Road--a 52 mile road full of vistas, hikes, waterfalls, wild flowers, snow and critters.


Gotta get the sign--our last one this trip

fast moving streams



As opposed to the Grand Canyon, the stream that cuts this canyon
was crystal clear

I have found my new favorite flower--Beargrass --we are told we are in luck, these flowers only bloom every 5-10 years and this is a banner year.

The wildflowers were amazing

Beargrass

Honestly, the biggest (and most abundant) Queen Anne's Lace I have seen.

We went all the way east gate and then up to Many Glaciers. This is actually a place and we had great debate about the pronunciation of "Many". Here we saw a moose swimming across Sherbourne Lake. This is my first moose and I was thrilled. Then we turned around and came back to the top of the summit--Logan Pass. Here they have a couple of goats were posing for pictures.

Once again we see the Continental Divide

The goats had really thick coats and traveled in pairs

Marmot

The swimming moose

Saturday we slept in and then headed to a 5 mile hike to/back Avalanche Lake.

 Avalanche showcased giant cedars and a beautiful lake with a waterfall thrown in if you weren't star struck enough. The crowd was almost 100% American--no foreign language was spoken but could have a lot of Canadians since we are so close to the border. Many families--we are missing the kids. Honestly, there were probably a dozen people who came up to Fitz wearing his Tennessee Hat that said they were also from Tennessee, one couple is from Maryville--they were on their way home from Alaska!