May 28 - Day 12 - Thank you Teddy Roosevelt

After an early morning start to be at Whalen Tires in Kalispell Mt by 8am (45 minutes down the road) we had the remainder of the day to explore. The weather was not real accommodating but didn't hold us back. We made a couple stops on our return trip and back at camp by 11am. We again hooked up the rig to power & water, turned on the electric heaters (was a balmy 45 degrees), took Petro for a long walk, chatted with one of the work campers about local things (he has been coming back here to work every summer for 6 years) than headed down the road 5 miles to cruise Glacier National Park and the "Going to the Sun Highway".

At the entrance to park we stopped at at the Alberta visitors center and chatted with the gals about our trip trough Canada. Walerton-Glacier became the world's first International Peace Park in 1932.

This made it possible for Canada to set up this visitors center. 

They were very helpful, informative and friendly, providing us with lots of literature, tips and suggestions. We are now even more excited to visit Jasper and Banff National parks

There is a $25 entrance fee for Glacier National Park which is good for one week. We knew, from the gals at the Canadian visitors center and the desk clerk at the campground, the entire Sun Highway was not open for the season. Apparently they continue to clear the snow ( 50 ft last year, 25 ft this year) from the road at the highest elevations, but were prepared to pay the fee anyway as this is one of the main reasons we came here. We are told they expect to have the entire route open by June 18th. As we were approaching the fee station I remembered Carl's senior access pass which allows for free entrance into National Parks. First time we have used it for park entry. Used it many times for half price camping at COE parks though. We both left with smiles on our faces. Love to save money.

Even though only part of the "Going-to-the-Sun" was open (15 miles on this west end and 12 miles on the east end of the entire 50 mile route), we felt it was well worth it and hope to return another time to see the entire route. As we drove along the route and made many stops for viewing and photo opportunity, we continued to thank Teddy Roosevelt . What a visionary to secure places such as this for all of us to enjoy and ponder.

Our national firefighter son, DJ, told us Montana was expected to be a hot spot this summer for wild fires because of the severe drought conditions and the park Ranger we talked with confirmed this. He states a 10 year drought in the area has all of them extremely concerned. We reviewed a place mark that commemorated the 2003 fire that destroyed 144,000 acres in the park. http://www.glacieradventure.com/FIRE/
The same Ranger we spoke with regarding the fire danger told us that, in his opinion, the east end of the "sun" highway has even more beautiful scenery than this side, so are anxious to do that route in a day or two.

A little road construction never hurt anybody 

As we were ending our day in the park we stopped at the Apgar visitors center and decided to have a cup of coffee at "Eddie's". 

 When seated we noticed this sign for Huckleberry cobbler and of course decided to try it. Wow, worth every penny (and it wasn't cheap, but after all, we did save on our park entry fee)

View from our booth at Eddie's 

Again, thank you TR. If you want a good read and one that will give you an appreciation for our public land "THE BIG BURN" by Timothy Egan is wonderful.