The Backbone of the World

Glacier was incredible. Beautiful. From the beginning, it was destined to feel like home to me: we followed Rt 2 into East Glacier, and just knowing I could follow that road (albeit for days and days) and end up at home helped me relax and enjoy being away. The Glacier Park Hotel is also on the Blackfeet Reservation, which again, just makes me happy. I'm not Native American, nor do I have any Native stories (that I know of) in our family history. But I am an embarrassed European descendant, who hates to think about how horribly we treated the people who lived here first, and giving them some of my money... well, it's something anyway.

We got into Glacier on Monday, late in the day. It's about a 5 hour trip from Dr. Sister's house. The drive was really pretty easy-- well maintained roads all the way, with very little traffic. We could see the mountains to the left of us from about Helena on. (Speaking of mountains and Helena, the Sleeping Giant is pretty cool-- think Old Man in the Mountain, but a lot bigger.) Every time we go to Montana (which is looking like an biennial gig) I'm overwhelmed by what Lewis and Clark did. Hey honey, I'm heading out for the Pacific... see you in a few years! Holy Hannah... I would have turned around about 10 miles into the journey. We passed by the only spot of violence on their trip, when Lewis and his men camped with some Blackfeet for the night and things turned nasty (some say unpaid gambling debts were involved, others say booze... I'm pretty sure, at least, it wasn't over a woman...) and 2 Blackfeet were killed. Lewis and his men beat feet and traveled something like 3 days, day and night, before camping again for fear of retrobution. I say again, I cannot even imagine...

Anyhow, Tuesday was our Red Bus tour. Because of the record snowfall last winter, the Going to the Sun road, which connects East Glacier and West Glacier, was still buried under 12+/- feet of snow, so our route was mixed up a bit. We went to Two Medicine, Many Glacier, and then into St. Mary as far as we could get on the Going to the Sun before the road was closed. One trip is certainly not enough to really experience this place. If we weren't 100% sure we'd be visiting this park again before our tour, we were by the time we returned. Between the evidence of global climate change being right in front of you, the sheer beauty of the mountains and lakes, and the small crowds, this is certainly our kind of park. If anyone is up for a visit in summer 2013, let us know. I know I'm considering taking the train into West Glacier next time, and trying to get to Logan Pass from that side...


PS-- I forgot to create a contest with this one, so leave a comment, and I'll send you a picture. Easy Peasy!