Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park

The title is the actual name of the park because it sits on the Canadian-US border with portions in both countries.  We left Yellowstone and headed north and west towards Glacier.  It is a two day trip for us at just under 500 miles so we camped the first night here.

Cracker Barrel encourages RV's to stop and shop and will allow overnight parking.  We find them usually to be in a little nicer neighborhood and much less crowded than Wal-Mart parking lots.

We reached Glacier the next day and found a campground just outside the park.  It was a nice campground but the roads were very steep, it was a little scary getting the Dancer into our sight but we made it.  We were at West Glacier which is on the wet side of the Continental Divided and it was wet.  Wet but beautiful!  We explored the area and had this place recommended to us.  It was in Polebridge which consisted of a General Mercantile and a log cabin restaurant circa early 1900's.  The cabin was built by the owner of the Mercantile and is one of the few remaining structures in the valley as a fire several years ago destroyed most of the other structures.  It was a neat little restaurant and all of the local people seemed to drop by for a bite, brew or just to chat.

One of the owners told us about a Park campground back across the river so we ventured out in search of it thinking it might be a good camping spot.  We crossed what used to be the pole bridge across the river but the current bridge was concrete and steel.  I felt much safer.  We drove for quite awhile down this road(?) and decided it was a good thing we did not try to drag the Dancer back to this beautiful campground.  There were a lot of ups, downs and arounds just getting to the campground.  But once there it was a wonderful setting with this little lake high in the mountains.

One of the main attractions in Glacier is Going to the Sun Highway which crosses the park from one side to the other as it goes up over the continental divide.  The road was still closed at the top because they were still removing snow on the highest part so we could not traverse the park all the way on this highway.  But we did get to go part way and found this lovely path leading through a cedar stand that had the biggest cedar trees I have ever seen.

Guess who had to hug the cedar tree?  There were many many trees this size and bigger in this area.  We were still on the west side of the park or the wet side where the cedars got enough moisture to grow to this size.  We also found this stream cascading down out of the higher elevations.

The next day we hooked up the Dancer and headed east on US 2 around the south end of the park and across another pass which is lower than the one on Going to the Sun Highway and is open all year.  It was amazing as we crossed the continental divide to the east side of the mountains the vegetation immediately changed to more grass and less trees.  It was interesting to see the change from the wet side to the dry side.

We found a campground in St Mary which is on the east end of Going to the Sun Highway.  Here is the view from our campsite.

We stopped at the Visitor Center on the east side and it was a beautiful facility.  The park headquarters are in West Glacier but the Visitor Center there is not nearly as nice as the one on the east side so plan to stop here if you are going to visit Glacier.

As we drove into the park we encountered this fellow who did not seem to be to concerned about us being as close as we were.  We were in the truck though and not on a trail.

We had a lovely day and the views of the mountains were great.

We took several hundred pictures in the park but I am trying to give a good sampling of what we were experiencing.  Following the highway on into the park we stopped at a nice rest area and were just looking at the mountains and Marcia said what is that up on the mountainside?  

That mountainside is probably over half mile away so it is hard to spot them but there were about 12 to 15 mountain sheep right in the middle of the picture.  They are the little white spots.  We could see them pretty well with binoculars but even my longest lense could only bring them in this close.

A little further up the road we stopped at one of the few remaining glaciers.  When the park was first explored there were about 150 glaciers and now there are about 25.  It is one of the few that is easily viewed from the road.

I know it just looks like a lot of snow.  Wait a minute, that is what it is.

Here are a few more shots of the mountains showing their rugged and majestic splendor.

We started back down the road to the entrance and came across this Grizzly.  He was right next to the road.

We really enjoyed Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.  I hope we can return sometime to further explore its beauty.  Bye Bye Rockies!