We finally made it to Glacier National Park. We also found out that we are early. Most things don't open until July 1. The ranger talks, the boat rides on the lakes, the Going to the Sun Road and the gondola rides in White Fish. Actually the reason the Going to the Sun Road is not open is not because of the date but because of avalanches. They had 60 feet of snow on the mountain and avalanches have about wiped out the road in some places. They are working to repair it as fast as they can but apparently the damage is extensive. They keep moving the opening date back. As for the gondola rides in White Fish they are remodeling this year and the rides won't be open at all this year. White Fish is a ski resort and the gondola ride takes you to the top of the mountain for a beautiful view. In the winter the ride is to the beginning of the ski run. Every where we go there are roads still closed. So we are going where we can. Today we drove up the part of the west side of the Going to the Sun Road that is open. It is open to the Avalanche Camp Ground 16 miles up the mountain. It runs along McDonald lake for about 10 miles. McDonald Lake is the largest lake in the park.
We try to get a picture of the entrance sign to each park now. I understand the stone work for this new sign was $60,000.00.
Once past McDonald Lake the road goes along the McDonald Creek which is the river that feeds McDonald Lake. As you can see it is a fast flowing river and has many rapids, very picturesque. 
The mountains across the river have side streams feeding into the McDonald Creek with many beautiful falls.
This is Bear Grass. Right now it is at it's prettiest.6/13/2007
Today we drove the west side of the park. Most of the road is gravel and very rough. We drove 11 miles on the west side of the park on a black top road, then drove out of the park into the Flathead National Forest on to a gravel road. The road is gravel for about 7 miles then it's black top for about an other 6 miles. We stopped at a small bar for a pit stop and to get a pop as they call it here. The owner was a retired real estate salesman from Cincinnati, Ohio. He told us they have any where from 2 to 8 feet of snow a year and at times it gets to 55 below zero. They have no electricity. They run on a diesel generator that uses 8 gallons a day. At $3.00 a gallon that's $24.00 a day or about $720.00 a month for electricity. So I guess we don't need to feel bad about our power bill. From there Polebridge was only a few miles up the road but back on to the gravel road. Peggy really wanted to see the pole bridge. Unfortunately the fire of 1988 got the bridge and they replaced it with a iron one. At Polebridge we went back into the Park on our way to Bowmen Lake. It was 6 miles of curvy, rough gravel and it seemed like 12 miles. At 10 miles an hour it takes a while to go 6 miles.
This is the view when we got to Bowman Lake, very beautiful. There is a campground on the lake and there were people camping. On this lake you are aloud up to a 10 horse power motor on your boat. From there we had to go back the 6 miles and head north to Kintla Lake. Don't ask me how to pronounce it. I just got an e-mail from a camp host in the park, he told me it is pronounced (kint-la). That's simple enough. It was 15 miles further north on a road that was even worse, rougher and rockier. There was no way to avoid the potholes.
This view of the field of flowers and the log cabin was on the way to Kintla Lake. Most of the houses we saw on the way were built of logs. The flowers are little more yellow than show up on this picture and are every where in these prairies. We were not able to figure out the name of these flowers.
We saw deer every where along these roads in the park. Peggy got a video of a deer with a young fawn that must have been recently born. It still had it's spots and could hardly walk while trying to follow it's mother.
Indian Paint Brush. It is just starting to bloom but the red really shows up along the road.
We finally got to Kintla Lake and this was the view. There was a campground here, also, but there wasn't anyone camping. There were three men with a chain saw working in the the park but that was all. You are not allowed any motors on this lake.
We had our picnic lunch here with this beautiful scenery in the background. By the way for those of you suffering from the heat the temperature here was about sixty and the breeze was cool. Of course there were mosquitoes but not bad. At least none of the bears came for lunch. The only problem was that we had to return over the same rough road we came in on. But it was really a good day. The weather was great for me but Peg would like it a little warmer. She also would prefer a little less day light. It doesn't get dark here until after 9:30 PM. We had originally planned to go to the east side of the park today (Thursday, 6/14/2007) but as I write this at 4:30 AM, Peggy hasn't been asleep yet. So I guess we will do something less tiring today.
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