Thursday, May 20, 2010

After spending several hours in Great Falls, Montana at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center we left for the drive to Glacier National Park, Montana. A deer ran across the road just in front of us. It's a wonder we didn't hit it! We traveled through many Indian reservations, one after another, and they are fairly rustic. There are curving roads and no houses . We drove through many weather changes: started warm, then windy and some rain and cooling off.

We stayed at the Alpine Meadows RV Park in Summit, Montana. Maria's Pass is named after Lewis' cousin, Maria Wood. The Blackfeet Indians were the first humans to make a pass over this mountain. They called it Backbone Pass. It's 35 degrees outside with 15 - 30 mph winds in this valley. There are white caps in the St. Mary's River and the forecast is for 100% chance of snow with 1 inch accumulation. When we stopped at a pull-off to eat lunch, it was snowing and blowing really hard. Yesterday it was 74! Snow is on both sides of the road and tiny yellow flowers are blooming- similar to a yellow crocus or petite daffodils; and they are all over the forest floor wherever you look! Just in front of us are 10 wild horses and 1 baby horse in the road. They looked at us as if we were the strange ones. Maybe they don't get many cars here.

All of the ecosystems are interlinked here. If something happens to 1 species, it'll compromise the other species too. The Grizzly bear has a vital role in Glacier Park. There is a high population of the Grizzlies because there is no development or housing in the Park. Grizzly bears gain 100s of pounds during the summer to prepare for the long hibernation. With no developments there is more vegetation and it is lush; then the bears can live longer. It is not that way in Yellowstone. Glacier National Park is a refuge for almost every large mammal species native to the US. Most of these we will never see because they stay away from the roads and the majority of the park is inaccessible by road. There are 270 species of birds and over 1000 species of floral.

The Blackfeet Indians were here 10,000 years ago and named the tallest mountain Chief Mountain. The Indians believe the glaciers were formed by a battle between the sun (an old man) and the moon (an old lady) throwing rocks, stones, boulders, moss, trees. etc. The Euro-Americans didn't arrive here until the late 1800s when silver brought miners and railroads brought tourists. In 1900 George Grinwell lobbied for Glacier to be a National Park. It was accomplished by 1910. Going to the Sun Road ( elevation 6700 Ft.) was built in 1921.

This landscape is due to the glaciers and oceans of ice 12,000 years ago. The glaciers are 5000 feet of ice grinding away at the ground(glaciation). The lake waters are blue in color because of the glaciers reflecting back the sky. By 2030 this glacier will be gone due to global warming and it'll change every living thing in the park; micro-organisms, plants and animals.

Most of Glacier National Park is not open yet. We were only able to go in 1 entrance and even then the road was closed off after shortly after. The roads are not plowed. We will be leaving the RV park tomorrow because it's disappointing not being able to view the park.

On the way back to the RV park we saw many beavers. They dam up the local streams. A lone wolf was seen roaming around the RV park this morning. There are only 3 RVs in here at this time of year. It snowed and sleeted quite a bit overnight and it was really cold. You could hear the wind whipping around the RV.