Day 16: 8/14/09: West Glacie, MT

185 miles on Cory's truck, still camped in West Glacier, MT

I just realized that this is the halfway point in my 31 day trip. Time flies.

Rain, rain,rain. I've been to Glacier three days now, and it's rained every single day. But that's OK. If I wanted to see Glacier in the sun, all I have to do is buy a calendar. Some of the cloud formations Cory and I have seen are out of this world. So here is how the day went.

We left early for the Going to the Sun drive. About 8:00 AM. Stopped at the Apgar Visitor Center and picked up some maps. Resisted all the postcards and expensive books. The rain was holding off in the morning, but the clouds were very low. In fact, some of the time, we were above the clouds during the drive.

I have been fortunate to see several National Parks. Grand Canyon, Arches, Canyon Lands, Rocky Mountain, and a few others. The views were always awesome. However, the views at Glacier were jaw dropping. If anything, the cloudy weather added to the depth and perspective.

The road is a narrow two lane drive built back in the 1930's when cars were much smaller. In fact, there are currentlyy width, length, and height restrictions. On top of that, there are no guard rails. Just short, two foot high decorative boulders to stop you from falling a thousand feet! And on top of everything else, the road was undergoing construction. But the views were out of this world.

The drive is fifty miles long. Our intention was to drive one way, stop for lunch, and then turn around and drive the same road back to get a completely different view of things. However, during lunch a huge thunderstorm came up, with hail and rain. So we decided to take a different way back. A route that we felt might be slightly safer. But, we actually ran into some snow on the roads on the way back to base camp! Yup, that's snow you see in the road. Probably an inch deep in spots.

It's still raining. Too wet for a campfire. So we all are in the truck camper. I'm blogging, Cory is reading, and the two dogs are sleeping.

Saturday, Cory heads back to Oregon. I'll hang around another day to book shop, pick up a few souvenirs, do a little sightseeing, and rest up. Then Zoey and I will start our way back east on Sunday. While the trip has been great, I miss my friends at home.

See ya soon.....