The main road through the park is an East - West road called Going-To-The-Sun Road. The name comes from a Blackfeet Indian legend or it may have been a whimsical name given by some white explorer. The Sun Road crosses the continental divide and goes over the 6,646 foot Logan Pass. When engineers were designing the road, two options were given to the park. One had gentle grades with 15 switchbacks and hairpin curves. The one that was chosen cost more and took longer to build but it had less of an environmental impact, better panoramic views, more sun exposure for fast spring snowmelt, and only one switchback, called The Loop.
We opted to drive the whole road today and then we would use the shuttle buses to get us to our hikes the rest of the week. The road is only about 51 miles long, but due to traffic, curves, and construction, one can plan to take 2 hours to drive it one way. So we packed a lunch and took off. I'll let the pictures tell the story of the beauty of the mountains, waterfalls, lakes and snow topped peaks.
Just past the halfway point is Logan Pass Visitor's Center where we thought we would take a 'short' hike up to Hidden Lake. It would have been short if not for hiking in snow! Here we are on a snow field at only 6,600 feet elevation, the sun is shining, it's hot and its cool! Despite hiking boots and poles we still slipped and slid up and down the mountain for about 3 miles total. Near the Hidden Lake we came across several small herds of mountain goats with kids. They did not seem to mind the multitude of people on their mountainside. After going all the way to the East Gate, we encountered more mountain goats on the road on our return.
The names of some of the sites were interesting -- Lunch Creek, Oberlin Mountain, Bird Woman Falls, Weeping Wall, Gunsight Pass, Sunrift Gorge, to name a few.
They are repairing and upgrading a large portion of the road so we had to wait a few times for the one lane road. I counted 76 cars in one line.
Still too warm out for a fire.
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