And now, Glacier!

We arrived in Glacier the evening of July 24th. We are at a really nice campsite right outside the West entrance. It’s got nice sites among the trees, very picturesque, but I noticed in the reviews online that there were several complaints about no water pressure. I called ahead and they said our site should be fine, however, it is not. When we discovered there was very little water dribbling out, I called. They said someone was working in the pump room to get it working and it should be okay by morning.

Later, when Randy and I had just gone to bed, one of the workers came to our site and called out, “Mavis!” (They all remember my name. That’s a good thing but I do have to remember to be nice and not be remembered for being crabby wand complaining!) “Your water should be working now.” We said thank you very much and tried it in the morning. Better, but still not much. However, it’s good enough that Randy can fill the pump from here so he’s doing that and we’re fine.

We’re learning lots about trailer living!

After letting ourselves sleep in and enjoy a nice breakfast the next morning, we drove into the park. We had thought we wouldn’t tackle the Road to the Sun yet since they say that takes all day and is quite congested, but from our campground it is really the only road in. It wasn’t as bad as we’d feared. We took it up to the summit, but then turned around rather than continuing down the other side. We did that the next day.

It is INCREDIBLE! So BEAUTIFUL! How thankful I am that we have places like this. The road is right along the mountainside, with a pretty stone fence along the drop-off, so even the road is picturesque. Randy said it was built in the ‘30’s with FDR’s WPA effort. What a good thing that program was. A real service to our country and future generations.

One cool thing was to roll down the windows as we drove, feel the fresh air, and smell the forest. Every so often we get a whiff of something that smells like some kind of herb. The first time we smelled it I thought it smelled like tarragon. Maybe also sage. It's a nice smell. We can't figure out what plant it is, though. Every time I'm walking and smell it I try to smell all the plants nearby, including the leaves of bushes and trees, but I'm still not sure.

Speaking of flowers, I expected to be wowed by the mountains, rivers, lakes, falls, and so on (which I am!), but I had not realized how beautiful the wildflowers would be. There are so many kinds and colors, and it's fun to notice what flowers start appearing as you climb higher and higher. I love looking at them growing in the nooks and crannies of the rocks. They're like miniature beautiful rock gardens. Hard to get pictures because there weren't good pull-outs and I was trying to take them through the truck window. Randy and I talked about maybe trying to make an homage to Glacier with a rock garden by our house. I suggested the little spot by the front door and Randy said, "We'd have to take out your roses." Me: "Hmm, I'll have to think about that." A rock garden would be fun but I love my roses. Maybe a different spot.

I, of course, have taken 10 billion photos. I have them in smugmug but in no particular order and no captioning. Putting them into this blog makes me choose some of the best ones. Still hard for me to keep it to a reasonable number, though!

One awesome thing we did was a "Star Party" the night of July 26th. It was at Logan Pass from 10PM to midnight. They sold 200 tickets, just $5 a car (no matter how many in the car), so there were a LOT of people. We all got a glow stick bracelet and everyone was told to keep all their car lights off, and they even gave out red cellophane to put over your phone or flashlight if you wanted to use those, so your night vision would not be ruined. It turns out Glacier National Park is an International Dark Sky Park. The rangers gave a brief talk with a video, and then we split up in groups (according to our glow stick colors) and got a laser tour of the sky by local astronomers. They pointed out a bunch of stars and constellations, including telling the myths about many of them. Then we were free to stand in lines to view things through the huge telescopes a bunch of these astronomers had set up.

So, so amazing! We saw the milky way making a big cloudy bow over the middle of the sky. We saw so many, many stars. I couldn't take photos in the dark but I found two images on the web that gave the idea. The astronomers pointed out Vega and the North Star, and others. We saw and heard stories of the constellations Cassiopeia, Pegasus, Andromeda, Scorpius, Hercules, Ursula Major (the big dipper - the only one I found myself) and Ursula Minor (the little dipper), and more. The planets Jupiter and Saturn were also visible and several telescopes were pointed at them.

One guy had rigged up his telescopes to iPad type devices so you could look at the images on the screen rather than trying to see it through the eyepiece. He must be quite the creative guy -- he said he rigged up a security camera and a back seat DVD viewer to make it all work. At one point he used his laser pointer to point out the star the telescope was aimed at and 11 seconds later the image on the tablet turned green for a second (there's an 11 second delay). He was super enthusiastic. I love it.

We also saw quite a few satellites and the International Space Station. While we were watching the International Space Station move across the sky we noticed another satellite following it and realized it was most likely the "resupply" for it, which had launched 2 days previously. We saw several shooting stars. Another reminder of our awesome creation.