Visited Aug. 14-21, 2021
By Janell
Our prime reason for staying in Kalispell, Montana was because of its proximity to Glacier National Park.
And now for Glacier NP:
As you can see we had cloudy skies, but at least they weren't smoky.
Just kidding! The falls are a barely visible line of white descending from the glacier at the center of the two peaks across the way.
This is the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier. We were in our tow car (Honda CRV); the Beast wouldn't even be allowed on this road. No vehicles or vehicle combinations (such as car and trailer) over 21' long, 8' wide or 10' tall are allowed.
Below is info from Wikipedia on Going-to-the-Sun Road. Feel free to skip it if you're not into such details (I get it!), but you must read this one astounding fact: The road is one of the most difficult roads in North America to snowplow in the spring; it takes about ten weeks to plow, even with equipment that can move 4,000 tons of snow in an hour!
From Wikipedia: Going-to-the-Sun Road is a scenic mountain road in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States, in Glacier National Park in Montana. The Sun Road, as it is sometimes abbreviated in National Park Service documents, is the only road that traverses the park, crossing the Continental Divide through Logan Pass at an elevation of 6,646 feet (2,026 m), which is the highest point on the road. Construction began in 1921 and was completed in 1932 with formal dedication in the following summer on July 15, 1933. The road is the first to have been registered in all of the following categories: National Historic Place, National Historic Landmark and Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The road is approximately 50 miles (80 km) long and spans the width of the park between the east and west entrance stations. The National Historic Landmark Nomination records a slightly shorter distance of 48.7 miles which is measured from the first main intersection just outside the park's west entrance to Divide Creek in St. Mary on the east side of the park.
The road is one of the most difficult roads in North America to snowplow in the spring. Up to 80 feet (24 m) of snow can lie on top of Logan Pass, and more just east of the pass where the deepest snowfield has long been referred to as the Big Drift. The road takes about ten weeks to plow, even with equipment that can move 4,000 tons of snow in an hour. The snowplow crew can clear as little as 500 feet (150 m) of the road per day. On the east side of the Continental Divide, there are few guardrails due to heavy snows and the resultant late-winter avalanches that have destroyed protective barriers. The road is generally open from early June to mid October, with its late opening on July 13, 2011, marking the record for the latest opening since the inaugural date of July 15, 1933.
Some people see the park while riding in these cool old-fashioned touring buses.
We hiked 3 miles round trip to the Hidden Lake overlook. The skies were interesting but cloudy.
On another day we hiked 5 miles round trip on the Trail of the Cedars, to Avalanche Lake.
This area of the park is aptly named "Red Rocks" in McDonald Creek. See how clear the water is?
Jackson Glacier
On the left side of the photo below you can see how small Jackson Glacier was as of 2015 (in blue) compared to its size in 1966 (in gray).
From the sign below (so you don't strain your eyes):
Every glacier in the park is receding. The park had over 100 glaciers when it was established in 1910. By 1966, 35 named glaciers remained. In 2015, only 26 met the size criteria to be designated “active glaciers”.
Snow avalanches, ice flow dynamics, and variations in ice thickness cause some glaciers to shrink faster than others, but one thing is consistent: all the glaciers have receded since 1966. The trend of retreat, apparent here at Glacier National Park, is also seen around the world.
From another sign at GNP (you didn't really think I talk this way, did you?):
For hundreds of thousands of years the earth has cycled through warm periods, when glaciers melt and retreat. Right now we are in one of those times. So how is today any different than what has happened in the past?
What is different is the rate. Ice core records from Antarctica show that temperature and the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere change in tandem. In the past century, we humans have emitted a significant amount of CO2, which is causing the climate to heat up – and glaciers to melt – at an alarming rate.
This is Jackson Glacier in 1911 and again in 2009.
At the rate that they're disappearing, the glaciers are expected to be completely gone by the year 2030! That's not far away. Will NPS change the park's name at that point? How can you have Glacier National Park without the glaciers?
Wild Goose Island
Definitely no smoke on this day! This meadow was at the edge of our RV park. Marty walked out to the meadow for this unobstructed view, but I was able to see a portion of this view from my seat at our dining table. Often I would see deer moving about at the edge of the trees. (They were so far away that we could just barely tell they were deer.)
Whitefish is a cute little town near Kalispell. I think we were tired of taking photos this day, because we don't have any of the town. But there were these four mosaic "windows" in Whitefish; one for each season. Here's summer for you, since we were there in the summer.
And here is a close-up of half of the winter window. As you can see, they were really well done!
It was pretty entertaining -- not only listening to the music but watching the other patrons. As you can see below, there was some dancing on the tables going on! Which brings up the question: What makes dancing on the tables so much more appealing than just dancing on the floor/ground? I don't know the answer, but I'm guessing there's a correlation to how much you've had to drink.
The brewery had some flannel shirts for sale, and we kept seeing more and more guys sporting this black and red plaid shirt -- thirteen guys in all! We overheard that it was a bachelor party, and they had traveled here from Washington state.
