Today we decided to drive over to the east side of the park. Peg had a sleepless night but decided to go any way. It's about a 100 mile trip one way with all the side trips, at least it is all black topped not gravel. You still can't drive the whole Going to the Sun Road on the east side you can only go 12 miles up. The drive around the south end of the park on route 2 is very pretty.
On the way you do drive through a small part of the park and there is a pull off in the park called Goat Lick.
This is the view from the Goat Lick overlook. I'm sorry the goats don't show up any better but that's the best my telephoto would do. You really need to expand this picture to see the small white goats on the hill side. Small because of how far away they are, they're across the river.
Another interesting place on the way to the east side of the park on route 2 was this pass called Marias Pass at 5214 feet and is on the continental divide. I know you all know that it means any drainage on the east side goes to the Gulf and on the west side to the Pacific Ocean. This is the view from the rest area. There are some pictures of the signs at the rest area telling more about this pass in my Glacier Album.
This is called Running Eagle Fall and was named for a Blackfoot Indian women. Apparently she was a warrior and a heroine to her tribe. These falls are on the way to Two Medicine Lake.
This is Yellow Columbine. I have seen Red Columbine in the Smokies but never yellow. These were on the path to the above falls.
These are called Showy Jacob's Ladder and were also on the path to the falls.
This is the view at Two Medicine Lake as you can see it was a cloudy overcast day and cool, temperature was in the mid fifties.
This little fellow who was not shy at all is called a Columbian Ground Squirrel. He is not afraid of people in fact he ran Peggy off. She was afraid he was going to run up her pant leg.
This view is from the Going to the Sun Road on the east side of the park. The water is part of the St. Mary Lake. The really interesting thing about this view is the way the valleys are rounded. This means they were formed by glaciers. As you can see there are no glaciers there now.
Another view from the Going to the Sun Road. The lake is the St. Mary Lake.
Just another view along the Going to the Sun Road of St. Mary Lake and the beautiful snow covered mountains in the background.
This is one of the tour buses they use in the park when the road is open. These buses were free to ride until the Going to the Sun Road was open the whole way then there is a charge. Be sure to click on the link http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/top-1930s-White-Glacier-National-Park-Red-Bus.htm for the interesting story of how these buses came to be. The park is starting a shuttle service that is free. http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/shuttles.htm This is a really good idea to reduce traffic in the park. The Grand Canyon NP has been using it for awhile now and when we were there it worked great. The date when the road is suppose to open is July 1st but as the lady at the entrance gate told us "that comes from government officials and you know how they lie." She also showed us pictures of the damage the avalanche had caused. It took a large chunk of the whole road out and will require a lot of filling back in.
This is the only glacier we have seen so far in Glacier National Park. It's name is the Jackson Glacier. This was where we had to turn around. By this time it was getting late. We had wanted to go to the Many Glaciers drive but it was to late. We had a long drive back to the west side over some windy roads with no guard rail and steep drop offs. I didn't want to be driving them in the dark so we headed for home vowing to come back Saturday. 
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