Going-to-the-Sun Road

Finally!!

Hoping to get a campsite and wanting to beat the crowds, we left early to get into Glacier.  The man at the gate said that St. Mary campground was full and we should try at Rising Sun.  We got there and the ranger who just happened to be standing near the registration board said there were a few sites open but none that would hold our rig.  We drove across to the boat ramp parking lot which is the furthest they allow anything over twenty-one feet and left the motorhome.  The road is under construction from Rising Sun to Siyeh Bend and is unpaved for that whole distance.  They water it regularly to keep down the dust and it is not too rough to drive.  Since we had driven as far as Jackson Glacier several times we didn't make any stops until then.  We took a couple of photos of the glacier to compare to what we saw a month ago.  From there to Logan Pass, most of the turnouts were on the opposite side of the road so we decided to stop at them on our way back.

Logan Pass has an elevation of 6,646 feet.  There were still some parking spots left when we arrived but on our way back, the lot was full.  We had dressed in shorts and when we got to the visitors center, they said the windchill factor was in the forties.  We went in and got my stamp and looked around but even though we had a stack of clothes in the car, decided that we weren't prepared to hike in that cold weather.  I had just put my fleece gloves and hat back in the motorhome thinking I would no longer need them.  We left the pass heading west.  It is almost impossible to describe how beautiful, awesome, stupendous, incredible, amazing... the ride down was.  The fact that I took 332 photos may help explain just what kind of a ride it was.  I went through two batteries and stole Ted's before we were through.   I have been putting off the job of selecting just a few pictures to share in this blog.

Jackson Glacier Again

On the Way Up

Still Lots of Snow Around

Proof We Finally Made It

Visitors Center Logan Pass

The road westward down had a 6% grade for twelve miles and clung to the side of the mountain with unimaginable drops down the side.  The road is narrow and on our right were rough cliff walls for most of the way.  There were waterfalls everywhere, many of them dropping on the road beside us or occasionally even on us.  We were glad we didn't have the roof window open.  Because the road had so many twists and turns, I think I kept taking photos of the same waterfall across the way not realizing until the end that it was the same falls from different angles.

Looking Across at the Road from Just Over the Pass

The Road is Cut Into the Side of the Mountain

It Is a Long Way Down

Not Much Keeping You From Going Over

The Weeping Cliffs Are Close to the Road

Lots of Curves as it Follows the Mountain

The Sign Said No Bicycles - Uphill for Twelve Miles

One of Many Waterfalls

We Stopped at This One

Snow Tunnel

The Weeping Wall

Water on the Road and Windshield

Another

And Another

Some Turnouts on the Opposite Side of the Road

Past the Loop We Were on the Outside

This is the One I Have Multiple Photos Of

Weeping Wall on the Way Back Up

The detail in the bridges, archways, catch basins, stone culverts, walls, guardrails and even a tunnel was amazing.  Everything was built from native stone with wonderful craftsmanship.  Sheer cliffs, short construction seasons, sixty foot snow drifts and tons of solid rock made building this road a unique construction challenge.  Triple Arches was one of the most difficult engineering feats of them all.

I haven't even mentioned the towering mountains, green valleys, beautiful wildflowers and winding rivers that were so far below us they looked like rivulets.  The whole ride was jaw dropping awesome.  I just can't think of any more descriptive words that fit the occasion.

We only drove as far as Avalanche Creek which is where we parked to go to the Trail of the Cedars and the trail to Avalanche Lake when we were here last month.  We parked for a few minutes and walked out on the rocky riverbed to take some comparison pictures before making the return trip.  We stopped to take some pictures of the destruction of a recent avalanche which was probably one of the ones that occurred when we were here before.

We also made some more photo stops along the route back to Logan Pass.  It was so difficult to decide what scene to take so we took them all.  We stopped at Lunch Falls just east of Logan Pass to have lunch which we though was appropriate.  A woman about my age who had ridden her bicycle up and was heading east asked if I could tuck her sleeve into the cuff of what looked like Gortex mittens.  She was really moving downhill when we passed her a bit later.

It was afternoon by the time we got back to the motorhome.  Since there were no campsites, we decided to head toward Great Falls and see if we could find something along the way and if not stay where we had before.  We saw a sign for one in Choteau but when we turned in, there was a sign that it was for sale and that it was closed.  We stopped for gas in Vaughn right before getting on I-15 and the person there told Ted there was a campground almost behind the gas station.  We drove in and got a site in this small but clean campground that also has a lot of older mobile homes in it.  At least it was a place to rest.           

Sunset at  Campsite in Vaughn, Montana