August 15, 2007

August 15, 2007

There is only one road across Glacier National Park. It is called the Road to the Sun because it crosses the Continental Divide at 6600 ft elevation. It is an old road that was a marvel of engineering when it was built at the beginning of the last century. They are rebuilding it but unfortunately not widening it and our 22-foot motorhome is prohibited. That means we are forced to take the shuttle up to Logan’s Pass. It is another brush with government efficiency. This time we are waiting with a big crowd at the transit center. Slowly but surely shuttles come by but they are only allowing 8 to board despite having a capacity of 12. They respond that they need to save room for people down the line. The crowd groans. We eventually board and of course nobody gets on farther down.

It takes us 2 hours to make the 30-mile trip to Logan’s Pass. The top of Glacier NP is a vertical world of jagged mountain peaks and steep canyons. All carved and sculpted by Ice Age glaciers that once completely filled these valleys. Glacier NP should rightly be called “Melted Glacier NP” as we see little ice. All that remains of the glaciers are the long narrow lakes in the valley floors far below.

From Logan’s Pass we hike two miles to Hidden Lake thru a meadow of beautiful wildflowers. In the distance we can see Bighorn Sheep and right off the trail we watch several Mountain Goats munching on my wildflowers. The goats look like hunchbacked old men in thick white coats.

Hidden Lake provides another stunning vista. It lies in a mountain bowl encircled by steep rock faces. We eat our trail lunch while enjoying the ambience.

Back at Logan’s Pass we hike the beginning of the Highline trail that overlooks the road back down. A few hundred yards into it the trail narrows considerably hugging a sheer cliff face. It is too much for Aimee and we turn back and try to catch the next shuttle down. It is another adventure. I should have rented a car and drove up myself. But that would have also been problematic as parking is limited everywhere we have been. The park seems to be doing as much as they can to discourage tourism. Because the shuttle turned into an all day event we returned to same campsite as last night.