Posted on by Anne Sandler · 6 Comments

On the road again: More from the twisty Going To The Sun Road, Glacier National Park

I’ve been in a lot of National Parks throughout the USA. In fact, that’s how we typically plan our vacation–which park do we want to visit and what’s around there. Glacier NP was on the list when we went across country in 2013, but for medical reasons, we didn’t make it.

Now we’re here, 4 years later. And, now I understand what the Ranger meant the first day when she kept mentioning the Going To The Sun Road. There really aren’t many other paved roads! Most other NPs have a bunch of paved roads that can get you around. I’m not complaining, the road is beautiful and can take a whole day to drive. However, we’re trying to figure out how to get to the Canadian Waterton National Park.

In the meantime, I do have another set from our drive on the Going To The Sun Road. No more grumbling. I’m sure we’ll come up with a solution and find some more roads.

When these were taken, the skies were relatively clear and cloudy. Tuesday, August 8, there were four fires in the Park. We were surrounded by haze as we wandered in and out of the park. You’ll see the fire effects in my next post.

Honestly, I’m not sure where on the road this was.
Another i’m not sure of.
This was a drive by.
The Weeping Wall. The darker areas are flowing water. There was no place to pull off nearer.
A waterfall at Big Bend.
There was still some snow.
And still some wildflowers.
More wildflowers
Scenes like this are abundant. Mountains and valleys and small rivers.
Packed snow.
A closer look.
Another water fall.
St. Mary’s Lake at the East Side of the Park.
More from St. Mary’s Lake.
It was beautiful
Posted on by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

On the road again: On the Going To The Sun Road, GNP

We had three options when deciding how to discover what we could along the Going To The Sun Road (GTTS) in Glacier National Park (GNP). We chose to drive it ourselves and not take the free Park shuttle (which really didn’t stop at places we wanted it to) or the pricey Red Bus. It’s been my experience that when on tours, the photographer may want to take a slightly longer time to get the shot, so……..

It took us at least four hours to get across the 50 mile road through the Park. Yes, a lot of it was spent shooting. Richard even pulled out his cell phone to take some pictures. I’d lie if I said it was an easy drive. It was for me, the passenger, but not for Richard. Once we got to the east end of the Park, Richard was exhausted. An ice cream sandwich later, Richard felt better. We decided to go back to the RV park in Columbia Falls by going outside the park. A little over 2 hours later, we were back to the trailer–both tired.

It was worth it. The scenery was beautiful. Our National Parks are amazing and we need to do everything possible to protect them.

Because of our age and physical capabilities, I knew we’d do two days in the park and rest another, and things are happening that way. Today, I’ve been editing, walking and editing. Here’s the first installment of images. I’ll try to keep up by editing while Richard naps and on our days off.

Tomorrow we go into the park to discover what other options we have other than the GTTS Road.

At Lake McDonald.
People waiting for the boat tour.
Bored? Skip some rocks.
Inside the McDonald Lodge.
The ceiling at the Lodge.
This was a stop along the road.
It was difficult to capture what we saw.
From the amazing rocks.
To the rushing water.
The last of this series.
Back on the road.
Shot through the truck’s front window.
A drive by.
A small tunnel. We thought it was amazing and difficult it must have been to build this road.
It was difficult to identify the names of places. I was working with the RTTS map and sometimes signage. Heavens Peak.
At one stop Richard spotted these deer. They weren’t too close.
My 18 – 140 mm did as well as it could. When editing I saw that these two were bucks!