Glacier National Park, 6/30

On our last day traveling together, we went to Glacier National Park. In a single word, the park was majestic. Of everything we've seen so far (and of what I saw the day after), Glacier was the highlight. Driving the Sun Road provides one with a continuous, uninterrupted view of natural wonder.



Eventually, we stopped pulling over to take pictures because the prospect of trying to capture everything we saw was simply overwhelming. We entered the park around 10:00am, and after a few stops for pictures, we parked the car and started a hike up to Avalanche Lake. This was an easy 2.3 mile trail to a mountain lake. The trail climbs 500 feet, following along a mountain stream. The water of the stream barrels down the hillside in a way that amusement parks have tried to capture for decades, carrying with it a brisk mountain breeze:

This is a popular hike because it's short, not too strenuous, and has a great payoff at the end:


Plus, after we had some snacks, a few hungry chipmunks swarmed our feet to get after our crumbs. Kristin screamed when one of the chipmunks tried to climb up her torso, which drew quite a bit of attention from fellow leisurely hikers. Some older ladies who had never seen a chipmunk before were pointing at them asking "What are those? Gophers?" I would be sympathetic to their inability to spot a chipmunk, but these thinks look exactly like Chip & Dale... Here's one of our friends:

The entire park visit took us about 7 hours, though we could have stayed longer. If I went back, I would certainly be interested in doing a longer trail, perhaps one that might have actually been deserving of the serious gear a select few of our fellow hikers were donning. As we discussed while walking back from Avalanche Lake, you'd think people would put away their bear-repelling jingle bells once they realized that the trail was as crowded as a moving walkway at the airport.

One aspect of the Sun Road that I really enjoyed thinking about was how the engineering and work behind the road represents our inability to truly conquer nature. Sure the National Park Service managed to build a road that climbs a mountain range, but the constant barrage of frigid, snowy winters means that they have to keep rebuilding the road just to keep it open. It's a perpetual reconquering of nature, a struggle that nature will eventually win when our species goes extinct.


Here's a picture that gives you an idea of the work that had to go into plowing the snow off the Sun Road:


After Glacier, we continued up to Calgary, which was a monotonous ride. I have to say, the letdown of leaving Glacier behind, the combination of Kristin's impending flight home, and the vast desolate landscape bringing us into Calgary had all taken their toll on my morale. However, I am over that for now.


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