The Savage Traveler: Out West Adventure: Part 2--Day one in West Glacier

Sun. June 23: We were on the road before 10:00 and enjoyed the scenery as we followed another river valley, climbed through some low foothills, and then drove several miles through the wide, fertile Flathead River Valley. We stopped at the Hitching Post Grill in Marion for taco salads and listened to the conversation of the man next to us and our waitress, who earnestly explained how she and her husband had moved to Montana because he had dreamed that 17 states, including Oklahoma where they had lived, were going to go under Martial Law during “Obama’s Reign”. Along with several other people who had “read the scriptures and can see that the end times are coming soon” they were preparing to survive independently there in Marion and she invited the man, who seemed very receptive, to join them. It was pretty unreal to hear this seemingly nice, pleasant woman talk so crazy! I felt like I was in another world entirely. We made it to the Rocky Mountains and Glacier National Park by around 3:00. The skies were partly cloudy and it occasionally would spit a bit of rain but then the sun would come out. The weather forecast was for pretty nice weather today, but high chance of rain on Monday and Tuesday, then clearing for the rest of the week. We decided to play it by ear but probably spend two nights on the west side and three or four on the east side, where it was supposed to clear earlier. We dropped the camper at a nice site at the back of the far loop that’s open in the Apgar Campground and immediately drove the “Going-To-The-Sun” Highway up to Logan Pass. It’s a pretty exciting, narrow road that clings to the side of the mountains, affording spectacular views of the deep glacial valleys, long tumbling waterfalls, and soaring snow covered peaks. Logan Pass is on the Continental Divide at 6646ft elevation. Although we had had lots of sun on the way up, as we got out of the truck it began to rain. At the Visitors Center, built in 1966, we got our first passport stamp for Glacier Park and talked to a Ranger about some of the hikes and programs she thought we would enjoy. When we came out, the rain had stopped and the sun was out again. We walked around the center a little bit but all the paths that were cleared run through towering snow banks and their one mile nature trail is completely snow covered still. The path behind the center has a small colony of marmots living right next to the snow banks. Many people were hiking up the mountain behind the center with snowboards, cross country skis, or snowshoes, some dressed in shorts and t-shirts. As we headed back down to the west side we stopped at pretty much every lookout and exhibit to learn more about what we had seen on our way up. By the time we returned to the campground it was about 7:30. We quickly set-up the camper, ate some cheese and crackers to hold us over, and went to a Ranger presentation about the bears of Glacier. He had 50+ years of experience at the Park and was very knowledgeable. Back at the camper we shared a can of soup and read before bed. We had entered Mountain Time in Montana so it was an hour later than it felt to our bodies but we wanted to be up early in the morning to check out the weather and make some decisions about how we’d spend our day.