Gorgeous Glacier

After our quick move to the new camp yesterday, Dar and I headed into the Park for an afternoon of exploring. We were here 30 years ago with our then 4 yr. old daughter and thought it'd be fun to see how our memories held up over the years. During that first visit, we tent camped along Lake McDonald, stayed at Lake McDonald Lodge one night, and then another night at Many Glacier Lodge way over on the east side of the Park.

We're trying to take advantage of the good weather predicted for Thursday and Friday because things should deteriorate after that. The future looks wetter with a chance of rain every day through next Thursday. So while I'm behind on Journal posts, and Dar's behind on our photo albums, we're going to pack as much exploring as we can before Saturday.

We entered the Park through West Glacier, the commercialized gate community at the junction of US-2 and Going to the Sun Highway. First stop was Apgar Village at the foot of Lake McDonald. With the bright blue sky and clear air, the snow-dusted mountains at the other end of the lake seemed so close. Between the two of us we must have taken 50 photos.

Further along Going to the Sun Highway (the central road through the Park) we found the campground where we camped 30 years ago. We both had similar recollections of the approximate location of our campsite but the trees seemed so much larger. Of course, that's what trees do... get larger with time. My memory is that this campground was called Lake McDonald Campground, but it turns out it's called Sprague Creek. I'm thinking the name changed over the years but haven't been able to confirm this yet.

And just up the road from the campground was Lake McDonald Lodge, where we wandered the grounds, re-explored the lodge itself, enjoyed a beer and snack in the lounge, and took a bunch more photos. My memories held up pretty well as it was just as I remembered it. 30 years ago I stood in the lobby fireplace and did so again yesterday.

A little out of the ordinary, we witnessed a helicopter ambulance come in to take care of someone who'd become ill. Caught some good shots for the album too.

Time evaporated quicker than we'd thought so it was time to head back to camp. On our slow drive back down Going to the Sun Highway we stopped at most pullouts and enjoyed the views. With only a few people around we often felt like we had the place to ourselves.

Still using the same tour buses we saw 30 years ago.

Pinch me... am I dreaming?
T