We spent the 4th of July here at Glacier National Park with another 5:30 am wakeup.
We wanted to get the iconic photo of Wild Goose Island, and then get back to the St. Mary Visitor Center to be parked, and in line for the express shuttle to Logan Pass since we are 24 feet in length and they warn no longer than 21 ft to go to Logan Pass.
Our 6:30 am visit:
8:10 am a quick stop on our way back up to Logan Pass. Got some pretty blue color in the sky and water. 🙂
And one more stop on our way out of the park about 2 PM. We finally see the top of the mountains in the background. This is my favorite even though we lost most of the blue sky, and of course the bluer water.
As the first morning shuttle pulled up at the St Mary Visitor Center shuttle boarding area, we learned that there are no Express Shuttles to Logan Pass from the east side this year! This year the park is trying larger/longer shuttles to be used on the east side only. Wait. What!?! You mean that larger shuttle, certainly larger than Sadie, can go on Going-to-the-Sun-Road from here past Sunrise __ to Logan Pass!?!? We could have driven up ourselves over an hour ago! The ranger and driver confirmed that it is between Logan Pass head west to the Loop Parking Lot that you need to be less that 21 ft long and less than 10 ft in height and 8 ft wide including side mirrors! Shoot! I do remember how tight the rock overhangs and rock corners jutted out to the edge of that inside lane. But we weren’t planning to go beyond Logan’s Pass.
So now what? Do we wait a bit longer for this shuttle to load and leave in about 15 minutes or hustle back to Sadie and take a chance for a parking spot at Logan Pass? We’re now spoiled. We like having Sadie with us, so we chose the later.
Unfortunately, there were no parking spots period when we arrived.
As we headed back down the road, we were able to park along the road right by the shuttle stop at Siyeh Bend. We just missed the shuttle to the top. We waited an hour for the next one! Obviously, these higher capacity shuttles also have longer waits for the next one. 🙁 I think they may find that they’ll need to run a smaller shuttle in between if visitor traffic increases from the St Mary entrance as they move into the full summer season.
Barry wanted to revisit the first mile or two of the Highline Trail. This trail just opened a couple days ago from the winter season!!
Anyone else think of The Sound of Music when looking at that picture above?? Makes my heart sing. 🙂
Such pretty colors in the rocks!
Heading back to Logan Pass
Small herd of about 6-8 deer. Here are some of the does.
Does this one think it’s hiding?? LOL
A couple juvenile bucks.
We went along the walkway up behind the Visitor Center for a place to eat our packed lunch. This was our view as we ate.
The pika is quite cute and lives in this area. It is a small, mountain- mammal. With short limbs, a very round body, an even coat of fur, and no external tail, they resemble their close relative the rabbit, but with short, rounded ears.
We left the Going-to-the-Sun Road and went for a hike that a lady in the campground office recommended. She saw a mama moose on the trail one morning a few weeks ago. It is just outside the official park entrance gate. We walked it counterclockwise. The entire first part was not impressive. It was really high brush with a very narrow “path”. It finally opened to low scrub ground cover and mix of dead and live trees to a more wooded area. No real views of anything. We were glad the last part had pretty flowers, a few great views, and a much better trail.
I’ve been amazed at how big the seed stage of the dandelions have been here and up in Canada! They are at least 3 – 4 inches in diameter!
Came to Beaver Pond…not sure it has that name, but it is where a couple large dams are present. Unfortunately, we did not see any beavers nearby. Bugs were coming out so we weren’t interested in waiting around!
Heading out on July 7, we stopped at this viewpoint.
Blackfeet Native Americans
On to Billings, Montana!