Life of Riley, My Buddy

Simply Beautiful Pics from Going to the Sun Road

Bear Grass in Glacier NP

 Each spring you see these beautiful plants, commonly called bear grass (also Indian basket grass); they are in the lily family and only sprout these beautiful flowers every five to seven years; park forests covered with them, particularly west side, wettest side

Logan Pass

Last few hundred yards for me to get to Logan Pass, where the Going to the Sun Road crosses over the Continental Divide; visitor center left of pic; altitude is just shy of 6700 feet; this world famous road is only open to motor traffic about three months of every year (basically July, August and September); it is 55 miles long, straight across Glacier NP, running west to east; this road generally does not open to car traffic until maybe late June of each year, but is available to hikers, bikers and skiers beginning about May; MT residents take advantage of this time each year to have Glacier NP all to themselves, without the massive crowds that will be coming later, as soon as the road opens

Beautiful Animals

Big Horn Sheep meandering around on the slopes; they are just off the Going to the Sun Road; another post later on shows them down on the road; the amount of water coming down the west side of the Continental Divide is amazing; the snow and ice are melting, and all the waterfalls, creeks, etc. are gushing with massive amounts of water; Glacier NP is really one of the most awesome national parks in our country, brings enormous amounts of tourist monies into NW MT; glaciers estimated to be gone by 2030, due to warming

Traffic Jam Going up to Logan Pass

Encountered these Big Horn Sheep as we were heading down from Logan Pass, typical sight in park; two of them butted heads as we watched them; another beautiful animal you often see is the mountain goat; one of hundreds of waterfalls that cascade down from mountains is seen in background; sheep eventually got tired of us staring at them and took off up the slope to higher ground

Weeping Wall

This section of the Going to the Sun Road is called the Weeping Wall, you can see why; several years ago, on my first visit to Glacier NP, I drove my Honda right up beside the rock wall and got great pressure car wash on one side of car, then came back other direction and got other side pressure washed; do not know if that will be allowed now; those rocks will be cleaned up before road opens, latest guess is June 25; this wall is about four miles below Logan Pass

Snow Near Logan Pass

It takes months for National Park Service (NPS) to clear snow before Going to the Sun Road can be opened to public car traffic, opening usually around late June, depending on weather; famous road is about 55 miles east to west; up near Logan Pass, both sides of road flanked by as much as 25 feet of snow walls; Logan Pass is where this famous road crosses over the Continental Divide, altitude just shy of 6700 feet; as of last weekend, there was still section of road on east side where snow drifts had road completely covered, snow bulldozers still have to clear that

Obstacle on Going to the Sun Road

Tree had fallen across Going to the Sun Road, park rangers had not yet cleared it away; large part of tree had fallen down mountain, across rock wall; rock and tree and snow slides are normal along this beautiful road; we just climbed over it and continued our ride to Logan Pass; you had to be careful of fallen rock and debris

Black Bear in Glacier National Park

 

 

Three of us were biking to top of Logan Pass in Glacier National Park; came across black bear meandering lazily along Going to the Sun Road; we watched him/her for about 15 minutes to make sure other bears were not around (particularly tiny cubs); we then had to pass bear on our bicycles to continue up mountain; we passed within 15 feet or so of bear, he/she just turned head and watched us go by, did not seem interested in eating us