Tom's National Park Adventure

Yesterday I referred to a famous road as the Road to the Sun. I was close …… but completely wrong! The correct name is “Going to the Sun Road”. This road is very famous for a lot of different reasons. Here are a few:

It was the first road ever to be constructed over an entire mountain range.

It was the first road to be recognized as a National Historic Place, National Historic Monument and as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

Glacier was made a National Park in 1910. Construction on the Going to the Sun Road began in 1912. The road was completed in 1932. The road is approximately 50 miles long. The highest elevation of the road os around 6646 feet above sea level at Logans Pass. This is where you cross the Continental Divide.

To try to describe the experience of traveling along this road is nearly impossible. The road experience changes constantly, depending upon the time of day and the weather. It is something that is best experienced.

I had a nice drive all the way from west to east and then back again. I tried to capture some of the better vistas i encountered along my journey. It would take too much time to try to recreate the experience on this blog.

If you ever get the chance I would highly recommend taking the drive. It is well worth the time invested.

In 2015 The forest on the East side of Logans Pass caught fire. They believe it was started from an unauthorized backpacking campfire. The fire ended up consuming over 5000 acres of forest land. Eight Years later, there are small seedlings starting to grow. It sure takes a long time to regrow a forest!

Tomorrow I will drive this road again on my way to yet another part of this beautiful park. Tomorrow I am headed to “Many Glacier”. Unfortunately the number and size of the Glaciers that this park was named after is decreasing every day. I am afraid our global climate change has a big deal to do with this. The park is beautiful all on its own, but it seems a shame to see the Glaciers disappear.

I will write again tomorrow. Hope you are enjoying the blog!