Summer 15

When just entering Idaho I kept seeing these signs to 'WATCH FOR ROCK', which just seemed to be grammatically wrong. To me they're saying either to watch for a person named Rock or to watch for one rock. While 'rock' as a geological term refers to the collective material (e.g., similarly as the terms 'dirt' or 'water'), what you're watching for on the road is pieces or rock and thus this should be 'watch for rocks'. That seems to be the way most states handle this.

In the valley just south of Flathead Lake, MT (see adjacent picture).

Flathead Lake, from an overlook on US 93. Flathead Lake is the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi and is a natural lake, though thanks to a dam on the southern end the elevation of the water is 10' higher than it would be.

This was my 3rd, and almost successful, attempt to go to Glacier National Park. My main interest in going to Glacier was the engineering marvel of the Going to the Sun highway, so the previous two times got canceled at the last minute because of summer snow that closed the highway. This time there was a fire that closed the eastern portion of the highway, but all reports were that the western (and most scenic) portion was open. As you might guess, this view from my first day in the park is NOT from the Going to the Sun highway. Having checked the park's website, I was prepared for the fact that I might have to take the shuttle bus up the highway (and that's better for the environment). But, when I got to the park, there were over 250 people waiting for the shuttle and the shuttles were 15 passenger buses that ran every hour. I was tempted to leave and simply skip the park entirely, but I heard the ranger mantra that there's more to do than the highway, so I decided to explore by heading northwest to Bowman Lake. Since I had to stretch, I stopped first at the Fish Creek picnic area on McDonald Lake. A not very positive initial experience. Given America's mantra about the 2nd amendment (right to bear arms), I'm going to have to get better at preparing myself for the effects of open-carry laws. The picnic site wasn't particularly crowded, and it was mostly small families with relatively quiet children. One handsome father caught my eye because of the way he was adjusting his shorts, but then I realized what he was adjusting was his holster. Looking around, I then saw that another father, with wife and two young (under 10) kids, was also armed. It wasn't a majority that was armed at the site, but it was disconcerting to see that two fathers were. Yes, there are bears in the area, but the park is pretty clear that using a handgun on a bear just makes the situation far more dangerous. So, I don't know what these men were protecting except from the dangers of other park attendees....

Having left Fish Creek picnic area, I head up towards Polebridge, which is just outside the park and on the way to Bowman Lake. The road to Polebridge is partially paved but mostly well-graded gravel and an easy, though dusty, drive through not particularly exciting terrain. Polebridge Mercantile was delightful. They have wonderful sandwiches, friendly folk, and a delightful picnic area -- and there was no open carry going on, as far as I could tell.

From Polebridge to Bowman Lake was fairly nasty drive. Still navigable in any type of car (i.e., the cars in this lot), the main problem is it being very rough with lots of loose gravel and narrow with single lane sections and trees very close to the road. From here to the lake was about 7 miles at speeds of 15mph or less.

Though the last 7 miles to Bowman Lake were tortuous, the lake area itself was beautiful. And, due to the fire in other parts of the park, relatively busy.

There's an easy trail around the lake, with plenty of bear warnings. Though the trail was empty, I quickly discovered that most such seemingly remote access points were populated with beach users. FYI, there was plenty of poison ivy, but my immunity to poison ivy seems to still exist.

Several times on this trip I saw people seemingly introducing their dogs to spending time in the water. I watched this person spend several minutes coaxing their dog further and further out into the lake, and then rewarding it with affection when it climbed up on a rock.

This bird was surprisingly completely unafraid of me. He/she stood on the bridge railing, looking around, and was unphased by my stopping only about 2 feet away. I walked past and it remained in the same place, looking around.

Bridge on the Bowman Lake trail.

When I got back to West Glacier I saw that they had worked out most of the problems with the shuttle, and so I jumped on a late shuttle up Going to the Sun road to Logan Pass. The people on the shuttle were interesting to chat with, and you could see what the Going to the Sun road looked like, but a shuttle is definitely not the place for photography -- particularly since you can't stop.

From the shuttle as we approach the top (Logan Pass). Though not particularly evident from here, the stretch of road in the distance is an engineering marvel with wonderful wall and rock work. The Going to the Sun road first opened in 1932 as a crushed rock road, it was later paved and has been realigned in various segments. See: www.nps.gov/glac/learn/news/upload/Going-to-the-Sun-Road-An-Engineering-Feat.pdf

Little did we know that when we got to the top, there would be more people waiting for the shuttle than there were shuttles. AND, what irked me even more was that it became evident that you could have driven your own car to Logan Pass -- the parking lot was not full. In terms of traffic and environment, I'm glad I took the shuttle, but it was a poor substitute for being able to look at the road and scenery. The local NPS folk and the people with the shuttle company were all very good and helpful, my irritation is with our unwillingness as a nation to provide the funds needed when situations like this arise.

From Logan Pass looking east towards the fire that had shut down the east side of the Going to the Sun road. More shots of the fire will be forthcoming with pictures from St. Mary.

Headed back down on the shuttle...

The bruck (they called it that), a truck/bus combination built for Great Northern railway to carry passengers and mail from the depot in Whitefish to Kalispell.

The Whitefish, MT depot build by Great Northern Railway in 1928 in an Alpine style. The elegance of the station was due to GN's heavy investment in promoting tourism at Glacier National Park and nearby (see #0257).