Gunsight Pass Trailhead - End of the Road (So Far)

We went to the visitors' center this morning hoping to see the film but they were having training in the auditorium and weren't showing the film today.  We looked at the displays on the several tribes of Indians that lived in the area of the park and read the interpretive signs. There is a large relief map with lights showing different features.  One set of lights starts with the number of glaciers there were in the 1800s and then the lights disappeared as time went on with all the lights being gone by 2020.  It made me sad to think that Glacier National Park will soon have no glaciers for anyone to see.  

Visitors' Center

We started up the Going-to-the-Sun Road and stopped to take photos of the reflections in the water at St. Mary Lake.  There was a wild rose bush that looked and smelled like the beach roses (Rosa Rugosa) that I had in my garden and that grow wild all along the Maine coast.  It was strange to see them here.

At one pullout, there was a sign talking about the triple divide and showing where to find it on the horizon.  This one mountain in the middle of the park has water flowing off it that reach the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay.  Hopefully it shows in the photo I took.

The eastern side of the GTTS Road in under construction this year and is all gravel from the Rising Sun Campground and Boat Dock until the furthest they would let us go. We followed a water truck watering the road to keep the dust down.  We met a couple water trucks on the road as well thinking we would get wet but they shut the water off just before it hit us and back on as soon as they were by.  It was amazing how close they could get to us without getting us wet at all.

Most of the pullouts were full and parking is limited but the shuttles won't start running until the whole road is open.  Besides the beautiful lake and the towering mountains, I really enjoyed the various wildflowers along the way.  I still haven't found a western wildflower book.  There were small and large waterfalls along the way and more of the beautiful red rocks we have been seeing.  The bridges are being rebuilt with the red and green stones native to the area.  They look quite festive.

Crowded Pullouts

Tour Boat on St.Mary Lake

St. Mary Lake and Going-to-the-Sun Road

Flowers Grow Wherever They Can

Don't Know What These Pretties Are

Indian Paintbrush

Waterfall Beside the Road

Waterfall Across the Ravine

Beautiful Red Rocks

Refinished Bridgework

After a week and a half at the park, we finally saw our first real glacier at Gunsight Pass Trailhead which was also as far as they were allowing people to travel.  One ranger told me the other day that with last week's new snow the avalanche danger was extremely high making it difficult to continue clearing the road.  At our stop to see the glacier, I noticed we were parked right in front of where an avalanche had gone through.  It appeared they had plowed the trees that were in the road down over the bank.

Jackson Glacier from Gunsight Pass Trailhead

Jackson Glacier Further Down the Road

Looking Up At Avalanche Remains

Looking Down At Avalanche Remains

The Stream is Probably What Caused the Avalance

We stopped at Sunrift Gorge on the way back and Ted took some photos of the trail that leads down to the stream and back up again.  Again, the bridge and stonework was a piece of art.

We stopped again by the lake and a woman who works at Olympic National Park offered to take our picture.  Our last stop was the boat ramp which was made of the red and green rocks placed in cement.  We hope to go back tomorrow to kayak again.

Tour Boat 

Boat Ramp

After a few busy days, I came back and took a nap while Ted rode his bike over to the visitors' center and then sat outside and read.  He found out that Two Medicine Lake was named for two sisters that were medicine women and practiced their healing from this area.

When I woke up, I baked a cake.  We didn't realize just how uneven the motorhome was until I took the cake out of the oven and most of it was in one corner of the pan.  Oh well, it tasted just fine.