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Friday, October 01, 2010

Our Second Day At Glacier National Park

We've been so blessed with wonderful weather during our trip, and our second day at Glacier was no exception. Well, the winds blowing at 40 and 50 miles per hour were a bit unpleasant, but the temperature was mild; and the day was sunny.

The famous Going to the Sun Highway is undergoing some major reconstruction at the moment. About 16 miles of the road are open from the west entrance, driving eastward. And it's open from the east, from St. Mary, Montana to Logan Pass, which is the highest point at about 6,680 feet above sea level. However, much of that eastern portion of the road is currently unpaved, due to the road work going on at present.

On this day, we drove the eastern half of Going to the Sun, stopping often for photo opportunities. We reached the visitor center at Logan Pass, which was virtually closed. There was a small staff to answer questions, but the really important part of the visitor center, the restrooms, were closed. There were, however, restrooms available in the parking lot in the form of porta-potties.

Well, a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do, even at 6,680 feet above sea level and in strong, gusty winds. Just after I went into one of the porta-potties, a major gust of wind shook the unit violently. Now, I'm not afraid to die, but I surely didn't want to go out being blown off a mountain in a porta-potty. Fortunately, whatever was anchoring that outfit (and I prefer not to think it was the weight of the person inside) held; and I made it out safely.
 
En route to St. Mary, Montana from East Glacier, Montana


Wild Goose Island-Glacier NP

Just pretty colors


View from Logan Pass

After driving back to St. Mary, we turned north and went to see Many Glacier Hotel, which was closed for the season but which is located in a beautiful spot that we wanted to see.


Many Glacier Hotel

Bald Eagle
 
En route from Many Glacier to East Glacier

Then we returned to East Glacier for supper at Luna's Restaurant and a good night's rest at the Mountain Pines Motel.

5 comments:

  1. Those are absolutely gorgeous photos Linda. The second one especially could be a painting! LOVE the port-a-potty story. So sorry you're writing a blog now so that I can't use it! :)

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  2. That photo of Wild Goose Island is dramatic.. the colours are wonderful. Your port-a-potty tale is hilarious. It's a good thing that gust of wind didn't blow your surroundings away. It's one thing to be out in the open above sea level.. quite another to be out in the open above pee level. ;)

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  3. Sandra-I love that shot, too. As for the porta-potty story, when that gust of wind hit, all I could think of was a video I had seen on America's Funniest Videos of a construction worker in a porta-potty that was tipped over by some of his fellow workers. It wasn't pretty.

    Hilary-A compliment from you on one of my photos makes my head swell. And I love your take on the porta-potty story. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.

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  4. Hey AL,
    Another awesome round of photos! Where ever you and UD travel you always seem to catch the peak colors!
    yfnb

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  5. Beckie-God is good! The color (not colors because there's just one: yellow) in Glacier was gorgeous.

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