Day 1
Part Two
7/2/2019
After hiking the Avalanche Lake Trail, I decided to venture further into the park along the Going to the Sun Road. It is a 50 mile long road that connects the west entrance of Glacier National Park to the east entrance. The drive to the Avalanche Lake Trail was very tranquil as it followed beside Lake MacDonald. It was flat and reminded me of driving in the hills back home. So I thought, how bad can the drive be to Logan Pass?
Bad, very bad.
Now as I mentioned in the ‘New Englander with Midwestern Roots’ post, I have been driving since I was 8 years old and I feel like I am a fairly confident driver. I have driven all over, for many different distances, different weather conditions, driven standard, driven in a different country, etc. I have never been more scared driving a car, than I did driving the Going to the Sun Road up to Logan Pass. Holy Moly!
It’s two narrow lanes hugging the side of towering mountains, with a one to two foot wood or stone barricades to ‘prevent’ you from tumbling off a cliff and hitting the valley hundreds of feet below! Some places don’t even have barricades because of excessive snow and avalanches!
Trying to stay on the road while dodging cars coming the other way and creeping around hair pin, blind corners gave me a heart attack! The road is carved into the mountain, so the lane against the mountain has a very low clearance, and is not always a standard width. There are parts where the rock juts into the road a bit, so while big SUVs are trying to avoid scraping their cars on the rock, those against the barricade have to try and avoid getting hit by the other cars, all while trying not to drive off the cliff! AH! Going up, I went no faster than 15 mph, my palms were sweating (they never sweat!), and my knuckles were so white!
Now don’t get me wrong. The drive was BEAUTIFUL…..when I was able to sneak a peak or didn’t feel like I was going to hurl from the heights! If you are going to drive the Going to the Sun Road, it is best to do it as a passenger, so you can take in all the beautiful views, and as long as you have a trustworthy driver!
**Yes I took some pictures while driving, but I was always stopped!
Every so often on the road, the lanes widen and there are pull off areas where you can stop and take photos. I stopped at a few to let others pass me, take photos, and to get my wits about me again.
I was so happy when I met some flat ground at Logan Pass!
When you reach Logan Pass, the road flattens out a bit because you reach a meadow. Logan Pass is the highest point of the road at 6,646 feet, and is also located on the Continental Divide. There is a visitor’s center here that has a gift shop, light snacks, park information center, and restrooms. Parking is known to be a nightmare! I had to circle the parking lot a few times until I caught someone walking to their car and was able to take their spot. The visitors center was packed, so decided to just enjoy the snacks I brought outdoors instead……or so I thought!
The tale of the pesky ground squirrel.
All over Glacier National Park there are small mammals called Golden Mantled Ground Squirrels. They are very cute and remind me of Gophers! However, due to the amount of human visitors to the park, they are not fearful of humans and are pesky little buggers. I learned this the hard way while trying to enjoy my mid day snack!
I found a nice rock to sit on, next to the trail and started to chow down. Across the trail I see a ground squirrel and decided to take a picture of it. Well…the following photos show the hilarity of the ground squirrel wanting to enjoy my snack too!
After running away quickly and other hikers laughing at my scenario, I decided it was best to continue up the path to Hidden Lake.
