Two National Ice Parks

Two National Ice Parks
Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska (not to be confused with Glacier National Park in Montana) gave birth to icebergs before my eyes this past July. Mt. Shasta in California, with its own rivers of ice, called me to its summit 2012. I now visit Glacier National Park, and hope to bring you vicariously to its back country.

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Friday, September 16, 2016

The High Country




There is only one way into Montana's Glacier National Park from the west side, and they call it Going-to-the-Sun Road.  It was built in 1932 through mountains that look impossible to build any road into.  But during the Depression a lot of seemingly impossible projects got built.








The Road connects the east and west sides of the Park, and Logan Pass is the highest point along it.








Haystack Pass, the highest point

Yesterday, the Road was finally opened following last Sunday’s first winter storm.  I parked at Logan Pass and hiked northward along the Highline trail, following along a steep ridge called the Garden Wall on the west side of the Continental Divide.










The sights were truly inspiring.  I hope you can get a part of the feeling of being there from these pictures.   








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6 comments:

  1. JunnieStarSeptember 17, 2016 at 12:08 AM

    "... Going-to-the-Sun Road"
    It would seem to one who views the images
    That at least five silhouettes ascend to the sun's glow
    Giving birth and recognition to the appointed name
    Perhaps to others, those silhouettes are figments
    Of Imagination's myriad of possibilities

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    Replies
    1. SharonSeptember 17, 2016 at 4:30 PM

      Silhouettes ascend to the sun's glow, and you know, Junnie, that I have not the imagination to see them. Imagination's myriad possibilities, like mansions over hilltops of my religious youth, are mostly blocked by gates of logic in Sharonland. Wishing it were not so does not seem to help. So keep going there because you can.

      Delete
  2. UnknownSeptember 17, 2016 at 7:00 PM

    Gone to the sun through a haystack pass on a garden wall? Can I go too?

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    Replies
    1. SharonSeptember 17, 2016 at 7:04 PM

      It's like going through a rabbit hole, Taura. You come too.

      Delete
  3. KathabelaSeptember 17, 2016 at 9:38 PM

    they say there is gold
    in those hills
    it shows
    at first sight when you fall
    in love with daybreak

    after snow melts
    the rocks are still
    slippery
    the long trail longer
    when you've been away so long

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    Replies
    1. SharonSeptember 18, 2016 at 6:06 AM

      Thanks for these tanka, Kathabela. Though the rocks here are not the kind that usually lure prospectors for gold, it's the kind of "gold" that Huel Hauser used to talk about. The gold shows its best views at first light for the few who see it then and fall in love.

      The snow is melting noow, and as it slips down over the rocks, they are indeed slippery. The long trail could be longer and faster with one bad step.

      Delete

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