On the Road - Day 40

I (Vance) woke up about 4:30 this morning and never really got back to sleep. The combination of a bed too small, sleeping on an unaccustomed side, and the RV being not quite level defeated my attempts to sleep. Although I feel real affection for the one we have, we both are increasingly feeling the need to upgrade our RV.

We are also both ready to go home. Perhaps our pace has been too fast or perhaps we have just seen all we can comfortably absorb. In the last 39 days we have taken 3,352 photographs and this is not counting the hundreds we have deleted. In our blog we have only been able to skim the surface of all we have seen and done. In addition, Pat's hips, knees and legs hurt - and this is a drag on the pleasure we are deriving from all of our seeing and doing.

8 a. m., and we are completely fogged in - taking it easy in the cloud remaining after last night's thunderstorm. This may not be a good day for the Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park.
9:20 a. m.: Cloud has moved up the mountain - looks like it will be a beautiful day after all.

We checked-in to Glacier National Park and went to the St. Mary Visitor Center. Because no vehicle over 21 feet long is allowed through the Going-to-the-Sun Road (narrow, steep, winding, and under repair/construction), we opted to take the Park provided shuttle from St. Mary to Avalanche Creek, with numerous stops along the way, and great photo opportunities. While we waited for the shuttle, we noticed an osprey (fish eagle) nest on a high pole in the parking lot. You can visit the park yourself at www.nps.gov/glac and view some of the wonderful landscapes.












At Avalanche Creek we got off the shuttle and walked .8 mile on a boardwalk path through Trail of the Cedars, very quiet. Highlight was the Avalanche Gorge, where the creek is cutting a path through hard rock.

On shuttle return trip, as we approach Logan Pass, Pat saw a mountain goat!. On this trip we saw incredible panoramas, waterfalls, high mountains, alpine flowers, glaciers, and St. Mary's Lake. Anyone seeing these glaciers understands that they will not be around much longer. At the Visitor Center, photos taken from the same vantage point in 1932 and 1988 showed the loss of glacial ice to be dramatic.



It was around 6:30 p.m., and the Park's St. Mary's (and other) Campground was "Full," but the ranger told us to drive around and take an empty campsite if we could find one. Phew, found one (that even the ranger did not have as available). The RV is parked right next to a tall berry bush hedge, and some of the berries are ripe. Sure hope these aren't the bears' favorite fruit - signs say bears are in this area.




Ended at St. Mary Campground, Glacier National Park, Montana
Odometer 61,366.2(3.1*) +68.0 on park shuttles (71.1) Total: 3307.7 *RV mileage plus park shuttle mileage = 71.1