Day 85 - A closed loop tour of Glacier National Park

I suppose I could have turned my tracker on this morning but I didn't think of it. Had I done so I would have received a note that Strava is for runners and bicyclist, not for tour busses.

So, no map. Entire route measured (strictly a guess here) about 160 miles in someone else's conveyance. For details see below. I am posting this without pictures for now. The pictures (117 of them from which to choose) may take more time and a better Wi-Fi connection than what is available to me presently. Please check back later for modifications to this post.

I had two alarms set this morning. What a fool I would look like if I overslept and missed my fortuitous reservation. Turned out I needn't set either as I was up and getting ready before the first sounded. A quick quasi-breakfast in a crowded lobby, then a refreshing 1/4 mile walk to the lodge. Several pictures later I found solice in the form of a gentle rocker on the front porch of the ancient manor.

At precisely 9 a.m. they began calling names for ridership in two of the Red Busses that have taken tourists around the park since 1936. These busses were made by White Motors specifically for the National Park Service and feature a fold-back canvas-type roof. Our guide for the 8 hour tour (Gilligan was doing the 3 hour tour again) was Ken, a very knowledgable and personable Floridian who spends his summers studying and sharing Glacier with new friends. Because I was a party of one I was assigned to ride shot-gun and was trained in canvas-type roof folding and emergency unfolding, which is now on my resume' right under raising the fore-jib on a tall ship.

Because our tour was a complete loop around the park we began traveling west on Highway 2 which arcs along the southern edge of the park between East and West Glacier. Among our group of 17 (the other bus also carried 17) were new friends Kaye from Wisconsin, Rick and Carol from Detroit, and Carol and Greg from the Portland, Maine area. 

We learned together how the history of Glacier Park was tied to the railroad, specifically James J. Hill. He is the same James Hill that founded (and has a statue in his honor in) Havre, Mt. It was his dream to have his Great Northern Railroad run to the Pacific Ocean and he felt he could find a route, rumored by the Blackfeet Indians but not revealed, through the northern Rockies. 

Hill hired a civil engineer by the name of John Stevens to find the route that would not require switch-backs to transport freight to and from the west coast. In December of 1889 he ventured well into the mountains, nearly freezing to death. After spending the night on the move, for he feared stopping would seal his fate, he stumbled back into camp the next day having located the second lowest pass over the Continental Divide (elevation just over 5,000 feet). By 1893 the Great Northern was running trains across the mountains and James Hill was very, very wealthy.

In 1910 the National Park Service selected Glacier as the site of its tenth National Park. It extended from the 49th parallel to the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, which coincidentally was where Hill's railroad tracks crossed Marias pass. (The pass was originally named by Meriwether Lewis to honor his daughter Maria, but somewhere the apostrophe was dropped and Maria's pass became Marias Pass).

James J. Hill's second oldest son, Lewis Hill, lived in his fathers shadow until he took over as the President of the railroad about 1907. Having seen and been inspired by the Grand lodge at Yellowstone and realizing that he already owned a railroad that sat on the doorstep of some of the most beautiful scenery in America he came up with a plan to capitalize (literally) on the situation. 

In 1913 he built the Lodge at East Glacier and ran railroad traffic right to his front door. He sold the wealthy on the idea of traveling west on his train to see "real" American Indians in their natural habitat. He then hired Blackfeet Indians to wander around the grounds in Native American regalia. Unfortunately, the "outfits" they wore were the stereotypical Indian clothing that the people were expecting, but not the actual clothing that would have been worn by Blackfeet. Give 'em what they want, became the mantra.

As the popularity of the park grew so did plans to accommodate more visitors. Lewis Hill built nine lodges in and around Glacier, and a road was built in 1927 up and over the mountains. An award winning engineering marvel, they managed to traverse the mountains with a 50 mile route that used only one switchback and only two short tunnels. In 1936, the Red Busses began transporting people within park boundaries.

Much of the local history was shared in the hours spent exploring the park's lakes, waterfalls, peaks and, of course, glaciers. And yes, we went up and over Logan's Pass at an elevation of 6,642 feet on the Going To The Sun Road. Promise kept. 

Ironically (referencing my Closing the Circle post from yesterday), had Betty and I not been kept from making this journey all those years ago because of snow, we would have been turned around by the length of our vehicle! I now know.The road has a maximum length allowed of 21 feet, two feet less than the Class C motor home we travelled in on our honeymoon adventure, AND, had we not been stopped by that, she would have been a nervous wreck after seeing the one foot tall guard rail that sat between road and cliff in many many spots. 

Note the short guard rail, the immediacy of the cliff and the 3 arch bridge that supports the road

I'm betting she enjoyed the view much better today than she would have through closed eyes with a vice-like grip on the dashboard. Reference the oft told tale of Old Stagecoach Road.

One of the local color stories told today was of Mr. Lewis Hill himself wandering into the frozen mountains near Marias Pass. He nearly met his demise but was rescued by two locals, Dan and Josephine Doughty. Dan was an experienced mountain man and helped in Lewis' recovery. His wife was a former prostitute who had married and settled into her new life in the mountains. Their place was alongside the tracks owned by Lewis Hill. So grateful was Lewis that he ordered the Engineers of his trains to stop and check on the well being of the couple each time they passed their place.

Little did Hill know that his Engineers were already stopping each time they passed the Doughty's place. Not because of her former occupation but because the Doughty's were supplementing their income by producing moonshine and selling it to passing railroad personnel, who then distributed it locally.

The day was filled with good stories, good company and incredible scenery. A good day in anybodys book.