Glacier National Park - Going To The Sun Road

September 10, 2013
Clear and sunny
Lat/Lon 48 41.7N 113 42.7W



I love to learn.
Anything I read, everywhere I go, I try to learn something from it or about it.


Let me share with you what I learned from our visit to Glacier National Park.

Glacier Park was designated as a national park in 1910.


The Continental Divide runs north/south through Glacier Park.  These mountains rise SHARPLY up to 10,000 feet in elevation.  The steep angle of the walls and cliffs is amazing!

"Going To The Sun" Road was built in 1932.  It's 50 miles of road, most of which is cut through solid rock and hangs on sheer cliffs.



It rises almost 4000 ft  in 25 miles. It is constantly pounded by runoff, debris, and falling rock.  But well placed drains, culverts and probably some level of stubborn pride back in the 30's, keeps maintenance to a minimum now.  

In my opinion, this road is a feat of engineering genius, even by today's standards.

As you near to summit of this remarkable road, the work of ancient glaciers is evident in the gentle bowl shaped curves of the alpine meadows.

The sharp contrast of the rock 'aretes' above the tree line, is the aftermath of two large glaciers meeting and basically scraping the mountain tops vertically, leaving a narrow fan of rock between them.

Nitro loved hanging her head out the window the whole way.  "Ya never know when you might see a chipsquatch or something."  Emmy, by contrast, slept most of the way.

The amount of water running out of these mountains is massive, and that is in September.  I can onlyimagine what it's like in June!

We didn't see much wildlife along the road, but here is a fat marmot that was hanging out along a path.

The sad part to this story is that Glacier Park had about 150 glaciers in 1910. Today, it only has 25.


At the rate the glaciers are melting, they are expected to be gone by 2030, probably sooner.  In about 16 years, (when Koby is 20 and Rhianna is 19), there will be no glaciers in Glacier Park.  

I remember coming up here in 1978, when I was 19, (35 years ago) and there was a glacier at the summit.  Now, there is a small patch of snow where it used to be.





This prompted us to research what constitutes a 'glacier' vs a patch of ice that doesn't melt.

Basically, (the short explanation), a glacier is a large patch of perennial ice, (remains year after year), that is large enough to move due to it's size weight. In Glacier Park, that is typical about 25 acres in size.

Going To The Sun Road is so amazing because it gives ordinary people, (like us), the ability to see alpine meadows, glacial rock formations, and views that would otherwise only be seen by the hardiest mountaineers and climbers.