August 31

The only weather forecast sheet at Swiftcurrent was for the Many Glacier area. Figured it might be similar to Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. A high of 67 deg F, sunny, and a slight breeze. Made for a happy departure. A couple miles on the good road back towards Montana 49, I had to stop the car. A black bear decided to scamper across the asphalt. He was 15 yards away. After stopping in the brush, to turn and look at me, he headed up the hillside. Remember, it is all about timing.

Everything looked good at the St Mary entrance area. But that analysis was turned upside down after the first curve along Saint Mary Lake (there were whitecaps on the lake) and the subsequent climb. By the time I reached the Wild Goose Island overlook (this is one of the famous images most people see of the park on posters, cards, and literature) one could tell Nature was going to make life miserable for us humans. Fog kept rolling down the mountain sides. The wind was pushing the rain horizontally at times. Visibility was in the one-hundred yard range for most of the way up to Logan Pass (the demarcation point between the east and west sides). But sitting in the parking lot at the Logan Pass VC, that distance began to shrink. At times I could not see more than 25 yards. The fog was blowing by at a good 40 mph, if not more. I threw on rain gear and walked into the VC. The park paramedics were attending to one person who had sustained an injury,… his family looked on. The place was packed wall to wall with people. I overheard many of them reevaluating their hiking plans. My plan was DOA. I was going to take the Garden Wall Trail down to the Loop Trail, for around a total of 10 miles, then use the free park shuttle to go back up to Logan Pass. With basically no visibility to view the gorgeous park, and considering the wet trail and atmospheric conditions, I will save this adventure for another day.

There were a few stops on the west side of Logan Pass. Bird Woman Falls is 492 feet tall. There is a good parking area along the road for visitors to stop and take photos. Redrocks Overlook is at a complex of cascades. Sacred Dance Cascade is another water feature. McDonald Falls is massive. Thanks to all the snow and rain in this park, only Yosemite seems to be its equal in the number of waterfalls. Myriad small streams of water were coming down from the peaks. What I did not see was a glacier. A couple patches of snow were visible at the top of two peaks, but nothing else could be seen from the road. That was the not the case the previous four times I have taken the Going-to-the-Sun Raod, the last being 15 years ago. Granted, the fog was not helping, but it was obvious to me the glaciers are about gone in the mid-section of the park. Scientists have been predicting this for a couple of decades.

Last note for today. If you are coming to Glacier in the next couple of months, be forewarned about nine miles of the Going-to-the-Sun Road by Lake McDonald, on the west side. This was the worse stretch of road I have ever been on in a National Park, and maybe any place. Ruts and potholes up to 8” deep, and wide. And one right after another, no breaks. That portion of road at Many Glacier? This was logarithmic-10 worse. At times the speedometer read 1 mph, going down and back up each pothole. Just about one hour to go the nine miles.