Glacier National Park – August 3, 2016

Yesterday the high temperature in the park was 82 degrees and sunny.  Tomorrow the weather will be pretty much the same as yesterday, but today because we have a reservation and already paid for a Red Bus Tour through the park the expected high is 62 and cloudy with intermittent rain.  Oh well.

We had to leave the RV at 7 a.m. because it is a little less than 3 hour drive to get there.  Actually Glacier Park was not on our original plan or we would have stayed closer, but lots of people have told us we had to go, so we are going.

Red Bus #80

These Red Bus Tours have been going on in Glacier since buses were available and these buses are actually second generation from 1936.  They were completely refurbished by Ford Motor Company in 1992 and look brand new.  They only hold 18 people including the driver which is much nicer than a big tour bus.  On sunny days, the canvas roof of the bus is open so its like being in a big convertible.  Our “Jammer”, as the drivers are called, was a 20 something year old college student working on a Masters Degree in Divinity with a lot of personality.

Our first stop was McDonald Lodge on the lake of the same name.  The front of the lodge actually faces the lake because when it was built there was no road access the only way you could get here was by boat.  Obviously that means its very old.

Flowers at Lake McDonald Lodge Front Entrance

Can you tell its raining and cold?  Lake McDonald is 1 mile wide and 10 miles long and 400 feet deep in the middle.  It’s average water temperature is only 55 degrees but that’s because the bottom stays around 45 degrees even though the surface temperature may go as high as 65 degrees.  Doesn’t sound like a good swimming lake to me but we keep our pool temperature at 88 at my recommendation.

Lake McDonald from Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier Nat’l Park

The next stop was Sacred Dancing Cascades.  Notice how blue the water looks.  This has something to do with minerals from glaciers rubbing stones together.  Way too much information for me with my minimal geology training.

Sacred Dancing Cascades – Glacier Nat’l Park

Down below you can see the cascades and above you can see the clouds we were about to drive through.  Putting in these roads through the park took 26 years because they wanted to minimize the impact both to the topography and visually.  You can see none of the road is visible but runs all along the side of the mountain.

Bird Woman’s Falls in McDonald Valley

Each stop was a higher altitude until we reach Logan Pass which is a starting spot for many of the high altitude hiking trails.  The place was packed with people even in this weather.  We were somewhere around 9000 feet high and it was rainy and very cold with a stiff wind.  The temperature had to be in the 30’s or lower with the wind chill.

Logan’s Pass – Glacier Nat’l Park

Snow still hanging on at this altitude.

There were some cyclists in the Visitor Center who had cycled up this high and were trying to get warm.  They were unable to get warm saying they were shivering so hard getting up there they could barely peddle.  I assure you, we didn’t spend long up there because most of us were too cold to care.

Our final stop in the park was at a lower altitude and warmer and well worth the look.

Falls at McDonald’s Horse Bridge

One final stop before we got back to the RV was closer to home and also worth the stop.  The Bison Range was established by Teddy Roosevelt because the bison population had dropped to fewer than 100.  He allocated government funds to buy the land and house the remaining herd.  It know has more than 500 on this range alone is no longer considered endangered.  It has also become home to white-tail deer, mule deer, pronghorn antelope and bug horn sheep.  Because it was close to dusk, we got some really good pictures.

Bison at National Bison Range – Missoula, MT

Countryside at National Bison Range

Mule Deer feeding near the river at National Bison Range – Missoula, MT

National Bison Range

Pronghorn Antelope – National Bison Range

Stack of Antlers collected at National Bison Range – Missoula, MT

Now home tired but happy.