Glacier National Park – part 3

019_13AThe Going To The Sun Road takes you to places that, sadly, most US citizens won’t see. IT’S WORTH THE TRIP, JUST GO. The Loop, where the road switchbacks with a turn radius of just a few feet is an amazing necessity given the work of the glaciers a few years ago. It is also one of the reasons that vehicles longer than 21 feet including bumpers are not allowed on the road between Avalance Creek and Sun Point – they simply could not negotiate the turns.

Triple Divide Peak is the geographic center of North America. As the park’s brochure states: the width of a human hand can determine whether a drop of rain will ultimately join the Columbia River drainage, the Mississippi River drainage, or the Saskatchewan River drainage. Logan Pass is where the Going To The Sun Road crosses the Continental Divide. Logan Pass is northwest of Triple Divide Peak, both on the Continental Divide. On the way up to Logan Pass, the road runs beside the Weeping Wall, a section of the Garden Wall that is constantly wetted by drainage from above.

Siyeh Bend gives you a great view of Mount Siyeh, one of the highest peaks in the park. Just past Siyeh Bend you can see Going-To-The Sun Mountain a high peak with an elevation just about 400 feet below Mount Siyeh. Then you come upon Sunrift Gorge and Saint Mary Lake on the east side of the park.

The wildfires burning in Montana have threatened the town of Saint Mary and can be clearly seen from the road as you leave the park headed east. The images are both scary and reassuring at the same time – people are risking their lives fighting to save residents and structures from the fires and yet nature decides when to start most of these fires and will recover from the burning without man’s help. It’s been that way for millennia and will continue in the future.

Leave a Reply