From Out-of-the-Blue Into-the-Blue

Glacier National Park was not originally on my radar for this trip. However, on the very first night of my adventure, my late husband’s best friend called me out of the blue for our “about once a year catch-up call”. Serendipitously, he and his wife would be visiting Glacier around the same time I would be in northern Idaho. And even serendipitouslier, Glacier is about 40 minutes from Whitefish Lake, Montana. Some of my former neighbors are volunteering at Whitefish Lake this summer, and I had considered stopping by to see them. Adding the Glacier stop was the a la mode on my huckleberry pie, so off we went for Montana.

Each stop was a quick overnight. And after traveling for three weeks, it was good to see familiar faces that were other than those of my two canine companions.

Other than the great company, the highlight of Whitefish Lake was the freight trains. They went by all day and all night. 50 feet from our camper. I am not exaggerating. It was hilarious, and was only a problem for the un-prepared.

 

I slept great, thanks to my new friend Mack.

 

 

 

One of the highlights of Glacier National Park is the Going-to-the-Sun road. It is a 50 mile drive from one side of the park to the other. It is reputed to be one of the most beautiful drives in the country. Unfortunately, my little camper exceeds the length limitation by about a foot, so we were only able to drive up about halfway. It was still breath-taking, especially the amazingly clear, blue water of Lake McDonald.

Lake McDonald is an oligotrophic lake, meaning it is low in plant nutrients and high in oxygen content. It is typical of the first phase of a lake’s life cycle, and typical of the kind of lake that’s created after a glacier disappears.

Remember that word, my trivia pals. “Oligotrophic”.

The clarity is really visible in the images below with the dogs.

All along the road, there are several pull-outs. We found a pull-out with no cars, and ventured down a short path to a beach. An empty beach. In the middle of summer, on a Friday afternoon, in one of the busiest national parks, we found an empty beach. Couldn’t believe our good fortune. Doggies and human had fun.

Another interesting fact about Glacier is that it shares a border with Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada. In 1932 the two parks combined to form the world’s first International Peace Park. “Although the management of each component of the property is directed by its own management plan, there are a number of guiding principles related to natural and cultural resource management, visitor use and interpretation, science and research and relations with Aboriginal peoples that are common to both parks, reflecting strong cooperation among the property managers”. (Source: whc.unesco.org).

Waterton-Glacier is also the first multinational dark sky park in the world. Gotta love our friends to the north.

Thanks for following along!

NOTE: For the record, Sally and Trax would like to declare that, during this two-day period of seeing friends,  THEY ALSO enjoyed seeing other familiar faces besides mine.