Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road

Our quick two-day stay at Glacier ended way to quickly. We were to arrive in the Seattle area before nightfall and had a good 9-10 hour drive ahead of us. First though, we were leaving the park via a sensational, awe-inspiring drive. One of the most famous mountain roads in the United States is Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road. This 50 mile road crosses the Continental Divide and spans the park from east to west. Construction of the road began in 1921 and was completed 11 years later. It was an engineering feat. It is the first to be registered in National Historic Places, National Historic Landmarks, and Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks. 

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Rising Sun Campground and Many Lake Hotel in Glacier National Park

We were one of the lucky ones, who arrived before 6:30 in the morning, to grab a campsite as soon as the current camper decided to break camp and leave for their next destination. It was a beautiful site, in Rising Sun Campground, that nestled up to a steep granite wall with clinging shrubs and crisscrossing paths from the bears traveling berry bush to berry bush. Encircling our campsite was a thicket of thimbleberry bushes providing a nice hedge of privacy as well as tasty berry treats for snacking and on top of yogurt. All of these ripe berries are what brought the bears into camp early in the morning and later as the sun set. 

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Glacier National Park & Happy 100th Birthday National Park Service!

August 25th is the 100th birthday of the National Park Service. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson established the National Park Service by signing the Organic Act into law. The purpose was to, “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

What better way to celebrate than by looking at a true treasure and one of our nations most beautiful national parks, Glacier National Park. In 1910, President Taft signed the bill creating Glacier the 10th National Park. In 1932, Waterton Lakes National Parks in Canada and Glacier National Park were joined together and named the Waterton-Glacier  International Peace Park. In 1995 it was designated the first World Heritage Site. We were fortunate to be able to visit there this summer for two short days. It is a spectacular park with towering rugged mountains, sparkling turquoise lakes, thick green forests, beautiful vanishing glaciers, colorful alpine flowers and home to the big eight of wild mammals – grizzly bears, black bears, mountain lions, wolves, wolverine, mountain sheep, moose and mountain goats.

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