Day #63 - 5/14/2011 - Kalispell, Montana to Browning, Montana - 153 miles

It was an amazing 153 scenic miles from Kalispell, Montana to Browning, Montana, including a detour through Glacier National Park.

(The scenic shots look great enlarged...click on 'em.)

The Super 8 motel provides a decent breakfast.   There's batter to make your own waffles, some fresh fruit (oranges and bananas are good with me) and oatmeal...mmmmmm, oatmeal.  This was our 2^nd consecutive Super 8 night.  For the extra $5-$10 over a Motel 6, it’s a much better value...just in case you’re wondering.  And, something else I've noticed about virtually all of the motels we have graced: they are all managed by people from India.  I wonder why that is?  I'll have to ask.

Kalispell was a short 40 minute ride to the Western Entrance to Glacier National Park.  The main byway of GNP is the Going to the Sun Road, most of which, unfortunately, was still closed from heavy snow and avalanche.  

Completed in 1932, the GTTSR is the only road through the heart of Glacier National Park.  The road
closes in the winter and can remain closed until late Spring, as it was for us.  Even with plows that
can move 4000 tons of snow per hour, the road is often not fully open until early June.

The "Going to the Sun Road"?  Is that not the coolest name?  I thought about where we had been on the trip.  We biked through Utopia, Texas and we had just passed through Paradise, Montana.  And...now...we were going to the sun...on a road, no less. 

But, first, we turned the other way and headed towards the western side of the park.

We weren't sure what we'd find on the western side of the park, but drove for about half an hour, taking in the terrain and snow-covered meadows.  Meadows, like this one, are in transition...colonized first by grass and small plants which are then overshadowed by trees.  I'll come back in a decade, or two.

We toured the first 10 miles of the Western perimeter of the park before returning to the accessible part of the Going to the Sun Road.

Parking the car and taking a walk along one small lake where the road borders forest and wilderness, it was fortunate that I was watching where I was going.  This is probably elk scat.  Too small for bear...a little big for goat.  I guess it really doesn't matter, eh?

The Going-to-the-Sun Road, the only road through the heart of Glacier National Park, was completed in 1932, and traverses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass.  The road was conceived in 1917, the first national park road planned with tourism in mind.  Construction started in 1921.  It is narrow, winding, buried early in the year by snow and plowed clear often as late as June.  We were weeks too early.

The melting snow made for some raging water.  McDonald Creek parallels the GTTSR and eventually empties into Lake McDonald.  These two guys were trying to photograph a solitary harlequin duck  that was bobbing in the war, diving for crustaceans, insects and lord knows what else.  Their lenses were so much bigger than mine and, suffering from lens envy, I silently moved on.

Glacier National Park is dominated by mountains which were carved into their present shapes by the huge glaciers of the last ice age; these glaciers have largely disappeared over the last 12,000 years.

Majestic scenes were everywhere.

The rocks in Glacier National Park are 800 million to 1.6 billion year old sedimentary rocks and have proved to be some of the world's most fruitful sources for records of early life.

After only 8 miles, the road was barricaded because of the unmelted snow..  We parked and hopped out.

Even though the barricade prevent everyone from exploring the best part of the park, no one seemed disappointed.

We crossed on foot the barricaded road to reach the trail head for the Trail of the Cedars, itself a 2 mile loop that was also “snowed shut” about half way.

A generous boardwalk made this an easy area to explore.  If you stopped walking and held your breath, it was quiet.  Maybe too quiet.

A fork in the path gave us a choice: back to the main road or the two mile path to Avalanche Lake.  Even though there was a chance we would reach the snow line and be forced back, Lani was in favor, so up hill we went.

During the summer, this is a popular trail, filled with the hordes of the unwashed masses.  No so today.

The two mile hike - 500' vertical - passes through rolling hills and old growth forest on the way to Avalanche Lake, fed from melt water from Sperry Glacier.

Before long, we were above the snow line, wearing only our running shoes.  It was a real mess.

Over the next 90 minutes, we climbed well above the slow line, hiking across snow melt, small streams, foot bridges over bigger streams and increasing amounts of snow.  At one point, we were passed by properly geared hikers who knew the area well and informed us that we were 2/3rds of the way there.  We followed them for a bit, then turned back: our Nike’s and our socks were saturated with cold water and the conditions just seemed to get worse.  Even though it was mid-May, winter still clung to this part of GNP because of the elevation.  We were disappointed, but still enjoyed the air, the scenery and the exercise.

I had already started to turn back while Lani, stuck, reaches out for her father.  Muhahahaha...

 The downhill path back was a relief and paralleled the water raging down Avalanche Gorge.

There was a small rainbow created by the mist that was thrown off the water.

Even if we didn't make it to Avalanche Lake, the turbulent waters, the mist and sunlight were hypnotic.

Some went to greater lengths than others to get that special shot.

Even during the height of summer, the elevation of Glacier National Park keeps the temperature from peaking at more than 60 to 70 °F, and that was still three months away.

Though this was my first time at Glacier, I felt at home and would compare the beauty to the Eastern Sierras.

By now, it was 2pm and time to head to the Eastern side of the park.  We headed towards Browning, MT, part of the Blackfeet Nation reservation.  Heading East on the highway, you cross the Continental Divide and, sure enough, I could see that the river paralleling the road was now flowing Eastward, rather than Westward.

Descending from the mountains, Browning popped into view: a small town with pretty sharp borders, surrounded by Montana wilderness.  

About 1.5 miles from one end to the other, area=.3 square miles and population of 1016, Browning is >90% native American Indian, reflecting its position in the Blackfeet Indian reservation.  If you know anyone who wants a panorama of Browning that is about 19' wide, I know where to find one.  Click...it's a big pic.

Browning looked a bit bleak and underpopulated, as if it needed more people to fill out its space.  The souvenir shops around town were closed and there were few cars on the streets.  The Bureau of Indian Management reports a 69% unemployment rate...totally believable.

It was clear that many of the shops in Browning were geared towards tourism, which largely dies off during the winter.  Until Glacier National Park was in full swing, much of Browning was closed.  Aside from the taco stand across the street, the Subway down the road or the casino, there were few dinner options.  We headed towards the casino.

Limited dining options included the local Subway and the dining room at the casino.

Driving around Browning, we saw a couple of campaign signs for last year's election to the Montana House of Representatives.

Ms. Little Dog lost to her Republican opponent.  She has a short, incisive essay on an anti-alcohol web site that is a testament to the problem with alcohol that exists in some Native American communities.  Take a minute and read it...it gives some painful insight into the problem alcohol poses in certain communities.

As with the dining options, our motel search in Browning left us little choice. There were no national chains, just a few places that were run by the Blackfeet Nation.  We headed towards the Western Motel, which had several positive ratings on TripAdvisor. 

Actually, the room was pretty decent and, were it not for the guy in the next room who snored like a chain saw, it would have been quiet.

In the room, we planned, agreeing to take seek out more national parks before returning to the cycles.  Tomorrow: the eastern portion of the Going to the Sun Road before heading to Yellowstone.

What an awesome day.