August 17 Road to the Sun

We were up early again this morning, we have noticed that in the mountains it really cools off at night. We didn’t have an frost but the windows of the vehicles had condensation on them. We packed a lunch and we were on the road by 8 am, it was clouded over, so we left the doors on because it was a little chilly. We headed towards St. Mary’s and the gate to Glacier Park.

The Road to the Sun was open all the way so that was the plan. There was also seven virtual caches along the road so that should take us to a couple of places that we wouldn’t normally see along the road. We made it to the gate at East Glacier, asked the park ranger what the weather was going to be like and she said that the overcast sky was supposed to burn off by about 10 am, so that was good news. The first stop was the seventh virtual; we were doing the road backwards according to the GPS but who cares.

The virtual was called Sun Point. We made it to the parking lot and started off when we discovered that we had to take a trail about ¼ of a mile to the destination. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take dogs on any trails in National Parks; there were signs up all over the place. I guess they don’t have many responsible dog owners down south. We decided that I would stay in the parking lot area and Len would hike the trail and then he would come back and we would switch. While I was waiting for Len, I talked to a tour bus driver and he told me of a couple of museums in the area that we might want to visit. Len came back, took Lindy and I headed out to the point. It was a very pretty view. There was a huge sun dial that also was a compass and gave you the names of the surrounding area, got some very nice view shots with the camera.

Next on the trip was Baring Falls. This was quite a hike, so Len went on this one and Lindy and I stayed and explored the falls by the road. The river went under the road, got some very cool pictures of the running water. The rocks here also included the red argillite just like in Waterton Park. Technically Lindy and I weren’t even supposed to be on these small trails but I had her on the leash and we decided to risk it. Len got a very nice picture of the falls, another geocache bites the dust. We then continued up the road to the top. We stopped and took a picture of the one many disappearing glaciers in the park. This was the location that we had to stop in June as we could not go any further, but today is another day. Back in the Jeep and up we headed.

We hit two road stoppages as they are fixing the road. They are rebuilding the walls that are all along the side of the road, we had to stop twice to wait for the traffic, no problem, it gave us enough time to get out and take pictures. When we got to the top we tried to find a parking spot but everything was full, so we decided to continue on to the bottom and the west gate.

The drive down to the bottom was great; we didn’t stop until we made it to the Lodge at Lake MacDonald. There were not very many places to park, so Len drove around while I ran into the Lodge to do the cache. This lodge was set up exactly like the Prince of Wale Hotel in Waterton, very rustic with a touch of class. I also got a cool picture of the red buses that they use for tours throughout the park. They look just like the ones that they used over 50 years ago. After we did the cache at the lodge we decided to head back up the mountain rather than go to West Glacier.

The next stop along the route was a virtual cache called the swim hole. It was a bit of a climb down to the area, but was absolutely beautiful. Len and Lindy stayed in the Jeep while I made my way down to the river. There was a large number of people taking advantage of the weather and I am sure the very cold water, considering it is a glacier fed river, hence the colour of the river.

After the swimming hole we continued on toward the summit. There was a cache at a location called the weeping wall, I guess all summer this section of the highway is constantly raining. Unfortunately we couldn’t stop to get a good picture because of the traffic stoppage for the road work. We did get some cool pictures of one of the archways that they are working on and some of the wall work they are doing

The next stop was supposed to be back at the top but just as we were coming up to a very neat waterfall and the Top of the Pass, we were stopped by a mother goat and her kid. Luckily we found a parking spot so that we could get some great pictures of the family.

The pictures look like their close ups but I was actually only standing about five feet away from the baby. Good thing mom could careless that we were there because she just took off without paying any attention to us. However, the father goat was keeping a close watch on the whole event. Traffic got a bit backed up as the mama and baby came back. Finally a park ranger came by and shooed all the goats away so that the traffic could continue on. Lindy was very good, she just sat on the Jeep seat and didn’t bark or even growl. We managed to get some good pictures of the goats and the waterfalls in the area.

After the traffic had passed we jumped back into the Jeep and headed up to the information centre. We found a parking lot and went exploring. There really wasn’t much to see at the booth, there was garden out back but again we weren’t allowed to take the dog with us, so we headed back to the parking lot. This time we saw a bunch of Big Horn Sheep, munching away on some grass just over the wall from the lot.

We then headed back down the mountain and a nice leisurely drive back to the campground.