Keeping Current: Glacier Part I

The next day, we were ready to do some sightseeing. Early bird Pat took a photo of the hotel and rental car (yes, the Toyota actually made it to Montana) while everyone else finished packing up.

We headed towards Polebridge, a small town nothwest of West Glacier and just outside the western park boundary. We figured it would be an interesting town considering the sign that greeted us.

Downtown Polebridge. And uptown. And just plain all of town. This mercantile building is about it.

For such a small place, there sure were a lot of signs.

Next, we headed for a remote campground on Kintla Lake, northeast of Polebridge on the west side of the park. The gravel road on the way to the campground had a large section of trees that looked suspiciously like they may have been subjected to a wildfire.

For being a remote group campground, our campsite was nice.

Beautiful Kintla Lake. The lake was not actually too cold - I would say it was warmer than Lake Superior!

The Kintla Lake ranger station has a scenic view from its location nestled in the woods on the edge of the lake.

The water was very clear, making it easy to see all kinds of colorful rocks.......

.....that were perfect for skipping.

Too bad we weren't taking this photo in our backyard.

Pat thought it would be neat to get a birds-eye view of us standing on the edge of the lake. This looks more like a mosquito's view, I think.

After setting up camp, we headed back south on our way to Going to the Sun Road. The mountains of the Livingston Range to the east of the roadway to Polebridge were just beautiful. The cloud formations added to the scenery.

We couldn't stand to continue driving with out stopping to take a few more photos.

Someone had started their property boundary fence where we stopped. I don't think Pat would mind a front porch view like this!

Quent & Christina also amused themselves with a battle of the cameras :-)

Our first stop on the Going to the Sun Road was Lake McDonald. It was even more beautiful that I had remembered from the last time I had visited back in 1995.

Photo-op.

If you are not nice, me and my camera gang will shoot you. Shoot a photo of you, that is :o)

Pat & Quent couldn't pass up on the game of trying to hit each other's rocks in the air.

Our last look of Lake McDonald prior to heading onto the next sight.

We stopped at an overlook of a creek just northeast of Lake McDonald.

The water was an amazingly clear green-blue color.

There were several small rapids up and down the creek.

The lookout deck was right near a little canyon the creek had carved out.

Some rapids in the creek.

The view from the overlook parking lot was even nice.

Evidence of glaciation was apparent on this rock outcropping I snapped a photo of as we continued along the Going to the Sun Road.

We stopped at the Heavenly Peak lookout for another scenic view.

The blue sky really make the clouds and rocks stand out.

The cloud formations added some 'drama' to the scenic views from Logan Pass.

Logan Pass is along the Continental Divide and is 6,646 feet above sea level. Just east of here is apparently called the 'Big Drift' since snow drifts can be 100 feet deep.