Glacier National Park - Part 1

We have moved a short distance from Columbia Falls, Mt. to Edgewater Motel & RV Park in Lakeside, Mt, which is very near beautiful Flathead Lake. This park is only about 30 miles south of Columbia Falls. We will be here for two days before moving to our next destination, Blue Anchor RV Park in Osburn, Idaho for four days. While here we plan to attend a play at the Bigfork Summer Playhouse. The play we plan to see is The Full Monty, which should be hilarious. We've got to also work in a trip to Wally World in Kalispell, Mt while here.

Today's post is about our recent trip to Glacier National Park, which has to be one of the most scenic places in our country. We made two trips to Glacier, one around the outer perimeter of the park, which included traveling through the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia in Canada. The second trip was Through the heart of Glacier via the famous Going To The Sun Highway.There are so many scenic photographs I want to share, that I have decided to breakup the Glacier blog into two separate posts.  The trip around the perimeter of Glacier was a really full day trip that covered  over 400 miles, but had some very scenic and beautiful landscapes.

West entrance to Glacier National Park

Area known as Goat Lick where Mountain Goats are supposed to be prevalent, but they must have been hiding when we were there.

We spoke with a park service employee who told us the goats come down out of the higher elevations in summer to have their offspring, then travel back to the mountaintops in the winter.

Our home town is Shelby, NC and were surprised to learn there is a Shelby, Montana

.

East side of Glacier as seen from Highway 2.

View of Browning, Montana, home of the Blackfeet Indian Nation.

Scenic shot of mountain and valley. This is still on the US side.

Intersection going to  the community of St. Mary. Check out the fuel prices which is the highest we've seen so far. Fortunately we filled up before leaving Columbia Falls at $3.85/gallon for diesel.

Store at same intersection

A lot of Montana is "open range" meaning that cattle and horses are free to roam on the highways. It's a good idea to be alert when driving. Where the open range sections end, there are "cattle guards" across the road which consists of sections of steel spaced about 3" apart where you can drive across it but livestock can't walk across it.

Intersection of US & Canadian border. Building on left is US checkpoint and one on the right is the Canadian checkpoint.

Canadian Entry Point

Very Nice Canadian at the checkpoint.

First time for us to be in Alberta, beautiful country!

The next 3 shots were taken at an overlook on Highway 6 in Alberta and are drop dead gorgeous. It reminded me of a photograph you might see in National Geographic.

Entering the Waterton National Park of Canada which is the Canadian side of Glacier National Park. The price to enter the park was $19.50 per carload.

The Village of Waterton is well known for the  historic Prince of Wales Hotel that sits majestically on a hilltop that can be seen from all over town.

Tour boats on Lake Waterton

Beautiful log house in residential area of Waterton

Park in the middle of Waterton. Notice the 3 deer grazing which seemed strange to me as there were people all around.

Just a man and his pooch in the park. Seemed like a good shot.

We came across this wedding group while riding up the Red Rock Canyon Road in Waterton. Pretty kool location for a wedding.

A windmill of which there were hundreds in a scenic valley in Alberta.

We came across this large herd of elk and deer after crossing back over the US border. There were many more than are shown in the photograph. The time was just after sunset.