Letter 20 Glacier

Letter 20: Glacier National Park
From the Traveling Harrington’s.
Please email Olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com with comments.

Wednesday, July 30, Whoopee back in the states! We loved the beautiful Canadian Rockies and waterfalls and the country, but not the gas prices, kilometers, liters, and the Looney’s & tooneys.
We drove 18 miles to Babb and picked up our mail, meds & cigarettes then 9 miles to St Mary and Glacier National Park, then to St Mary’s campground. The wind was blowing about 50 mph and even though the sky was clear, the clouds over the mountains were spitting in the wind, and by the time we parked we were exhausted. These Chinook Winds are common and can be as high as 115 mph. They occur when the pressure builds on the west side of the mountains and then break onto the east side with a strong velocity. We went to a KOA and used their laundry facilities.

Thursday, July 31, found us catching the park shuttle for the “Going to the Sun” highway drive.

We waited at the St Mary’s Ranger station and

Watched a mother Osprey feeding her chicks.

This highway was built in the 1930’s for cars of that day. Now there are signs, “Nothing over 21’ allowed.” We could see why. The shuttles work in 3 segments: St Mary to Logan Pass, Logan Pass to Avalanche Creek, then from there to Apgar Village on the west side. 5 big buses cover the first step and all 5 were down that day, so they were using vans. We rode all the way to Logan without getting off for fear of not having a seat on the next bus. Then caught the one down to Avalanche Creek, then to

McDonald Lodge where we had huckleberry ice cream. In spite of the delays we encountered due to the bus shortage we highly recommend the shuttle service. Fred and others wouldn’t like the drive over the west side of Logan pass!

We learned that in 1930 when the park was started there were 150 glaciers, now there are only 26 and by 2030 they will all be gone. We only saw one during our stay here.

On the way back, Olivia rode in the passenger side of the van and was able to take pictures of the road, which is under construction to improve the drainage and replace parts of the retaining wall.

It was exciting to be able to look straight down into the valley below.

To see the weeping wall, which at times flows completely over the road and cars drive under the falls.

The mountains and valleys were spectacular.

We saw the Triple Arches (be sure to look in the van’s rear view mirror of the drop off behind us)

Haystack Falls

Up Logan Pass
On this part of the road Fred said he wouldn’t drive it and on
This part he said the trailer would be skinned all to pieces where he scraped it as he stayed away from the edge.

And as we arrived back at Logan Pass
A big horn ram walked right in front of the van!
Then there were several sheep (mostly rams) in the parking lot licking the drips from the cars.
Olivia walked down to see and nearly ran into this one! (Angie, please be sure Muddie sees this picture. She knows how hard Olivia has looked for a Big Horn.)
She has been hunting for Big Horn Rams since becoming a Big Horn hiker in Rocky Mountain National Park when she was in High School. Now here they were. Actually there were about 15-20 below the parking lot and across the road. This was another achievement for Olivia.

Even though we were exhausted we went to the ranger program to hear about the local Indians and were surprised to hear Jack Gladstone’s Indian legends and songs. He has CD’s and his web site is http://www.jackgladstone.com/ which tells his back ground better than we can. His grandfather came into the area with the Hudson Bay Company and married the Blackfoot Indian princess. He told stories his grandmother had handed down.

If you would like to see more on this park go to www.nps.gov/glac you can click on “going to the sun highway” and see better pictures than ours.

Friday, August 1 we spent the day at the trailer. In the afternoon we met a couple from Bedford, Texas and they brought their supper and ate with us. We enjoyed visiting with Carol and Ed Fisher, also Methodists and travelers like us. Carol told us the story of the fireweed flower.
They bloom from the bottom up. When they are in full bloom it is six weeks until snow. Guess we have a little time left before snow because they are about half finished blooming. We also learned the fireweed is one of the first plants to come up after a forest fire. We had thought it was phlox when we first saw it because of the color and leaves, so it must be a cousin.

Saturday, August 2 we retraced the lower part of “Going to the Sun” and took pictures of
Jackson Glacier and Wild goose Island
Then in the afternoon we drove to Many Glacier Lodge for their historic tour, then treated ourselves to a Huckleberry Margarita and split a buffalo bacon cheese burger. This was a very restful day.
As Olivia was downloading these pictures she looked out the trailer window to see this bird in a tree about 4’ from the trailer. It was eating ants. What kind of bird is it? A red-naped sapsucker. Sunday, August 3 we attended the First UMC of Babb, Montana. There were 15 in attendance. They have a circuit rider who covers three churches and 150 miles each Sunday. Babb, Browning and Cut Bank are their churches. Their car has gone out and they are in need of a replacement. Someone has loaned them a car until something permanent comes along.

The ladies told Olivia they had people wanting to help the “poor Indians” and send donations of clothing. They had a whole rack of coats and boxes of cloths in their back room. The problem was the Indians wouldn’t come take it. They would go to garage sales and buy the same thing, but were too proud to take a hand out. The church does not have fund raisers so they can’t sell the clothes. Olivia suggested advertising a garage sale at a home, but not pricing anything. Tell the shoppers to pay what ever they wished as a donation. Maybe that will help.
The wind has quit blowing so Fred decided to try his luck fishing. No license is required in a national park. He bought salmon eggs and other fishing equipment and we walked to a point on St Mary Lake.
This was our last day in Glacier National Park.

Love to all,
Please email Olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com with comments.