Advanterous Road Trip to Glacier NP

Glcacier NP
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Glacier national park trip started with visiting Devils Tower first, next going to Theodore Roosevelt NP, Then finally spent 2-3 days at Glacier NP.

I reached devils tower in the morning by around 9 AM i guess. I have not know story of Devils Tower until i went to Devils Tower National Monument and read the story about devils tower. I really surprised to know it is formed form old volcano. it is indeed bottom of dead volcanic cone from where magma used to spit out side. after x years it was formed like that. I read on one of the information dash board about formation of cylinders. Initially i thought of seeing Devils Tower like drive thru, But slowly got interested to know more about the monument.
I walked on a trail around the monument. I watched the monument from 360 angle from ground. When i was there i saw many rock climbers are preparing at the ground to climb the monument. I watched them for sometime. when i am ready to leave the place, two climbers are climbed half way, But Because of very heavy winds it seems they dropped climbing all he way up. I did not know, devils tower is one of the favorite places for professional rock climbers, until i see them climbing. 

Then i started to driving North Dakota to see its only national park(Theodore Roosevelt National Park). While driving I saw vast national grasslands miles after miles. I was raining whole day pretty much. I reached national park. by as it was heavily raining when i reached visitor center. I went inside to get some information about NP, luckily 20 minutes video about the national park is about to start. I decided to see the  movie about the NP. I Think Roosevelt NP is about the US president

brief introduction about Theodore Roosevelt National Park.(courteous to wikipedia). 

when i attended one of the national park ranger programs about their becoming 100 years celebrations i came to know how National park service is established and under former US President Theodore how much it evolved and how much he has done to preserve the landscape and resource for future generations. So, I thought its really worth to mentioned it here how the Theodore Roosevelt NP is formed to give information for the people like  me who comes from outside the US or with little knowledge on US history.

Park development[edit]

Following Theodore Roosevelt's death in 1919, the Little Missouri Badlands were explored to determine possible park sites. Civilian Conservation Corps camps were established in both of the future park units from 1934 to 1941, and they developed roads and other structures in use today. 

The area was designated the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area in 1935. In 1946 it was transferred to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as the Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge. President Truman established the Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park on April 25, 1947, the only National Memorial Park ever established. In 1978, in addition to boundary adjustments and the establishment of 29,920 acres (121.1 km²) of the Theodore Roosevelt Wilderness, the park's designation was changed to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Attractions[edit]

Both main units of the park have scenic drives, approximately 100 miles of foot and horse trails, wildlife viewing, and opportunities for back country hiking and camping. There are three developed campgrounds: Juniper Campground in the North Unit, Cottonwood Campground in the South Unit, and the Roundup Group Horse Campground in the South Unit.

One of the most popular attractions is wildlife viewing. The park is home to a wide variety of Great Plains wildlife including bison, feral horses, elk, bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer and mule deer, prairie dogs, and at least 186 species of birds including golden eagles, sharp-tailed grouse, and wild turkeys. Bison may be dangerous and visitors are advised to view them from a distance. Bison, elk, and bighorn sheep have been successfully reintroduced to the park.

Theodore Roosevelt NP landscape is very formidable thats what i came to know after watching the NP video. Every season NP park landscape changes, it gets heavy rain, intense winds on vast grasslands. year after year NP erodes the sand with rain and goes with little missori river water, that how little missouri river contains mud water when it rains. when it rains and when fresh water joins in river it mud water.  I personally experienced its weather, i saw how little missouri river looks  when raining. I drove 15 - 20 miles inside the park. unfortunately i could not drive all park scenic drives as it was raining heavily. 

Glacier National Park

Then, from there I started to drive to Glacier NP in the intention of stopping by sunset where i will be by that time. rain continued fort more than 3 hours while i am driving. i drove straight west, at least 150- 200 miles from park is fully rain that day. 

After reaching Montana state border, driving for half an hour in Montana i started seeing sky with less clouds. 

By evening 4 or 5 guess i saw clear sky no clouds. Then i drove on Montana HWY 200 west couple of hours, i see none on those roads except once in a while car comes from opposite direction. thats it for next 30 mins or so.

 I was little afraid of driving at first, i have no choice other than driving forward. By the time sun light wades away i reached Great Falls, Montana. From Great falls i merged onto I-15 north. It was really interesting about I15, i started this whole journey Border to Border trip from I15 Mexican border. Now I am about 100 miles or 150 miles south of Canada border. I was really excited to know i am driving towards Canada border on known  interstate Hwy I15.  

I drive on I-15  on daily basis to commute to work in southern California within 20 miles from Mexican border .
That night i was forced to stay at hotel in browning, MT due to car accident that i was driving.  may be  i would have driven 10 miles from browning after  a break i took at gas station after filling up the gas and i went inside the store to pickup something to eat and coffee. i badly needed caffeine to make myself up for another hour or two.
I was driving towards St. Mary camp ground inside glacier national park, while going on hilly drive something happened to my driver side tire( i believe it was burst and sort of stuck did not move) i tired to stop the vehicle. but car rotating circles in the middle of road.
 luckily no one was driving on the road at that time. after 2 or 3 full circles i again tried to apply brakes slowly it kind of slow but vehicle was pulled backwards with heavy force(i had not idea why/how it happened) all i did is i was very conscious and controlling the steering. my car was pulled downwards towards downhill from road. i was bit lucky i did not let car go crazy on downhill as freely.
Luckily my car was backward going i let it that till went all the way to ground. After car stopped i was in car around 5 minutes did nothing. Then i got down and checked car in 360 degrees, driver side tire was burst, back window glass is broken and all glass pieces are scattered inside. nothing happened to gas tank or front half. Then i checked my mobile, i had a signal seems to be i did not drive much from browning. i called 911 and i let them know my location. Then i climbed to road, while climbing i realized how down my car fell. with 10 mins first cop came. Then standard procedure few more cops came and finally fire engine and paramedics too. they checked me everything and inspected the car and marks on the road, on the spot they prepared a report and handed over me.
in between i was requested to sit inside cops car, then i informed my insurance and requested towing service and checked a hotel for any vacancy. luckily i got one room in one of the hotel at browning, MT. when i am almost set, cops came opened the door. my car was back on the road and put is on towing vehicle. everyone dispersed with an hour from incident happened.
While Towing the vehicle to hotel where i made a reservation, towing vehicle driver told me about few days back there was a big win fire not far from city and still fire is continuing in many places. all hotels are over booked and i had indeed a very luck day to get a room.

As it happened on Saturday night, Next day morning i called to AAA to get some help. i had many calls to AAA and finally i set everything and service pick-up is set for Monday morning and nothing anyone can of on Sunday. So, i took enough rest on Sunday. i did not leave hotel premises except for dinner. I could smell the smoke when i came out it was not that bad. but still not very good.
Monday towing vehicle came almost after noon, we towed to one of the auto bodyshops in CutBank, MT for inspection and estimation and roughly i was told car needs to be totaled. if that is the case, i ensured to complete all paper work so that i need not to come there again. i gave full authority to body shop on car and rest AAA is taking care.
Another problem is i need car, my AAA insurance provided one but i need to go GreatFalls, MT to pick up one.  it is more than 100 miles from Cut Bank, MT. Luckily one of the lady is going home town, Great Falls city is on the way in the middle. She is so generous to offer me a ride. while going i came to know she from native of MT state and she stays in one of the mountain places and it snows a lot there in winter months. She described about how MT state when she was child and type winter activities she used to do.
But currently Montana state is changed fully temperatures soaring year after year, snow falls were reduced comparatively. it used to be many prosperous Mining cities, timber rich cities and there were numerous small oil fields i saw lot of rail roads too. most of the state is desert now very few people were living now. most of the mining, oil cities are vanished. after  one and half hours i was at enterprises office in Great Falls, i got Golf, VW compact model it was relatively new after completing paper work i started to leave to Cut Bank to transfer my luggage to new rental car to continue my trip. I did not waste anytime as it was going to be late by the time i would reach body shop in Cut bank.  When drove to shop, no one was there everything was closed. i called to the person  who stays in Cut Bank. and i was told he can help. with 20 mins i transferred most of the things i need to carry back remaining i left there itself.
Finally left the place after final goodbye to my first car Passat V6 RED color my favriote one in US i maintained for 9 years. i drove to many places with car. i used to go on road trips in my car only i rarely rented a car for trips. i feel very comfortably driving in my own car.  little bit light left when i was back to browning, before i go to hotel i picked fruits and snacks for next day. rest of the day i was at hotel i went to restaurant at casino next to the hotel for dinner. i spent sometime inside the casino before i go to sleep.  Best part was i did not breath heavy smoke all day and night when was at glacier national park. i have one day left to see national park. i want to drive as many places as i can as there will be 15 hours of daylight in august month.  

I think this year is worst year in Montana, Washington, oregeon, Idaho and California w.r.t to wild fires and their magnanimity. it is really sad to know how fire fighter are struggled to control Glacier NP fires. When i am at Glacier NP, the fires near to Road-to-going-sun HWY is fully under control, But few fires within the park premises are still going on I see lot lots of smoke on sky. to give a its enormity from park unto 150 to 200 miles i see nothing. everything appears like covered with fog. 

When i was talking to elderly native montana people, they were saying Montana skies should appear clear blue when its not raining. this year this season almost sky covered with smoke 100 of miles, not because of one fire. worst part is multiple fires from multiple locations are happening at the same time.. I could smell the smoke whenever i come out from hotel. or open car door or windows. 

I spent 3 days in glacier county. i drove many roads in Glacier park out side park. I drove 10 miles before to Canada border. i could not go to all the way to border, because when i see the map, i could not find any U-turn at border in US side. I think i was fine to drive till Many Glacier point and its junction at Bobb. it 10-15 miles away from Border.

I drove on Going-to-Sun from Mountain top to bottom and bottom-to-top from three drove to the west glacier entrance then followed by half a day at many glaciers. Glacier NP is fully scenic trails. i could not do very long ones i did not come prepared with mask for smoke airs. in stead i decided to hikes where ever less smoke  places mainly at west gate and near lake McDonlads. I would suggest driving from West Glacier entrance if any one wants to driving within park. instead of east gate. Road is Uphill inclination till the end. 

One can clearly appreciate the Glacier NP surrounding mountains and valleys, falls, creeks. whole park is so beautiful. 

Even i heavy smoke and without clear visibility i was able to enjoy the drives and most of the views. I could not see any of the mountain top still they look very pretty, one can see from the photos on this page.  I was really disappointment myself  for few things not to see or do in NP, could not see any glacier views in NP, did not hike to any lake on mountains it did not make any sense with lot of smoke on air. I expected a lot from Glacier NP landscape by seeing enough images from internet.  Other than that I really enjoyed rest of NP.

Instead i spent lot of time at Apgar village and Lake Mc Donald, I walked on wooden trail at lake, it was nice one along creek coming from near mountain and hiked till falls. It was easy one and most part except to Falls from ending is wheel chair accessed. one of the the very few trails wheel chairs has flat access. I have seen  lot of families with small kids on this trail.  While driving up hill from west glacier, i drove very slowly stopping as many corners i can, took tons of pictures, i drove for more than 5 hours to drive going-to-sun till east gate.

Some facts about Going to the Sun Road

Going-to-the-Sun Road is the only road that crosses Glacier National Park in Montana, USA, going over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass. It was completed in 1932. A fleet of 1930s red tour buses, driven by drivers called "Jammers", which were rebuilt in 2001 to run on propane or gasoline, offer tours on the road. The road, a National Historic Landmark and a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, spans 53 miles (85 km) across the width of the park.

The road is one of the most difficult roads in North America to snowplow in the spring. Up to 80 feet (24 m) of snow can lie on top of Logan Pass, and more just east of the pass where the deepest snowfield has long been referred to as Big Drift. The road takes about ten weeks to plow, even with equipment that can move 4000 tons of snow in an hour. The snowplow crew can clear as little as 500 feet (150 m) of the road per day. On the east side of the continental divide, there are few guardrails due to heavy snows and the resultant late winter avalanches that have repeatedly destroyed every protective barrier ever constructed. The road is generally open from early June to mid October,

  

The two lane Going-to-the-Sun Road is quite narrow and winding, especially west of Logan Pass. Consequently, vehicle lengths over the highest portions of the roadway are limited to 22 feet (6.7 m) and that means no recreational vehicles or trailers in excess of this length restriction are permitted beyond two larger parking areas, each located at lower points dozens of miles below Logan Pass, on both the west and east sides of the parkway.

I drove to Many Glaciers Point at lunch time on the last day, I parked my car at one of the picnic tables,  I prepared my lunch( rice, spinach dal and chips) there itself, it was lot of fun and to my surprise lunch was ready in less than 10 mins. I had very relaxed lunch seeing the surrounding mountains.

By this time i have got lot of experience in camp cooking and preparation. As this is the first time i lot of cooking in camping. I think next time i really enjoy many varieties of Indian food while i am camping.

After lunch, I watched people fishing at dam. i did small hikes. spent till evening then came back to my hotel. 

Washington State trip

I have driven some of scenic drives in Montana till i merged to i90 West. first 2 hours i just drove along a creek from hills. From Browning, i drove through East Glacier and west Glacier cities, Then drove on US-2, 35, 82W, MT28, MT 200 and 135 before merged on I90. I90 is really beautiful drive, miles after miles. My timing was little bad, this year Montana, Idaho and washington facing lot of wild fires, they really became nasty. Somehow, Glacier NP fires are off But not North Cascade NP fires. I could not even had a glimpse of North cascade region. I drove on i90 west all the way to Seattle. i think i have reached Seattle around 3PM. From Seattle to Kalaloach Beach it took me more than 5 hours, more than 2 hours i struck on I5 in traffic. After that, Enjoyed driving on 101 along small beach cities. 

Washington State tour should have started with North Cascades NP from east entrance(would have come straight from Glacier NP), Due heavy fires at north Cascade park, Whole park and connecting why 20 is closed for more than a month of travel dates.


 I need to modify my travel plans, accordingly on the fly, I stayed at Glacier NP for 3 days instead of 1 and 1/2 days.
I started from Glacier NP early in the morning by 7AM. previous night by 12, i packed everything in the car. Morning before sunrise, i got up and took nice hot showers and hot breakfast. by the the time i am out of hotel lobby, nice sun rise welcomed me.



AM i am on road. i need to drive a long hours all the way to beachside in Washington state. i have campground reservation at Kalaloach campground(adjacent to Pacific Ocean) in Olympic NP.




By the time i reached Kalaloach beach campground within Olympic NP there is little bit of light left, most of people enjoying the pleasant sun set on the beach. I went to my campground site, pitched a tent. This is the first time, in my trips i camped adjacent to ocean(after one night Pismo beach, CA camping couple years back). Kalaloach camp ground is on land bit higher to ocean floor.  After pitching tent, I had dinner ready in 10 mins. it was really quick, it used to take more than 1 hour initially. with instant dinners, i was able to make meals in less than 15 mins. While eating dinner, i studied the Olympic NP map, what would like to see for next day. i marked few places within Olympic NP to see .



I woke up the morning, it was raining, so I slept again till full sun comes out. I had breakfast and coffee. Then started having map on hand.  I stopped at Big Cedar Tree first.  It was vert nice to see big trees after seeing deserts, mountains and grasslands for over a week. I also took a picture of me with tree trunk to see how big the tree is. i walked in and around of few more cedar trees there.

After the seeing cedar tree, i went to Ruby beach straight. fog was slowly forming at the beach in the morning. it is also famous for rocks. There are smooth rocks full of beach. it is typical pacific beach ambiance, with morning fog covered with full beach with visibility of 10-15 feets. After spending some time at beach, next went to Hoh Rain forest.

I spent lot of time in Rain forest. i picked on trail for 2 hour walk, i walked on trail looking how Hoh rain forest formed. how how it looks like. After that i drove Sol-Duc hot springs. I spent rest of the day till sun set at hot springs. i small hike at Sol-Duc falls. After i am done with hike i went to hot spring and i soaked in hot spring for an hour before i returned to camp ground.  I came to camp ground, prepared dinner and went to beach to enjoy sun set. unfortunately, sun set is not clear like one day before. But it was very nice breeze.

There was big rain next day morning. i waited for an hour to two before i came out of tent. still its raining But reduce little bit, i got up and came out. packed my  sleeping bag , wet tent separately. Then i started to drive Mt Rainier National Park. I drove on some scenic byways, Mount rainier, mount adams and chinook scenic ways.

I enjoyed driving,  i stooped at many places to enjoy the scenarios. I reached Mt rainier NP by early evening. I straight went to campground. my site was moved different site because of some safety issues. I went to new site, i wanted to pitch the tent. it was very wet from last night heavy rain. I dried fully with dry clothes and lot of paper napkins.  i ensured inside the tent is dry enough to sleep. then i started to drive to Paradise point to have a look of Mount rainier.

I stopped in the middle to hike Christine Falls. it was very easy short distance less than a mile round trip. But i was little hesitant because of the timing and i could not find many cars at parking lot, except 3 cars. Anyhow i started to hike to at least Christine Falls. But i hiked all the way to Cement Falls around trip 3.6 miles I met only total 6 people on the hike, one couple at the begnining of the hike. two couples on the middle of the hike, thats it. Rest i was alone on the hike.

I hiked whole trail with hesitant. I felt my efforts was really worth after seeing till cement falls. I really enjoyed the solo hike. It was higher falls inside the Mt Rainier NP thats what motivated me to hike all the way to falls. if time permitted i would have hiked all the way to mildred point. Next time, i would like to definitely want to hike to mildred Point.

It took me just less than 2 hours to complete whole hike. I would have spent some time if i have more light. Then i drove to Narada Falls to have peek. Finally i drove to Paradise point. The Mount Rainier  Views not that good,

But with clouds on top of Rainier it looked great. I was able to see couple of glaciers very clearly. I could not able to see any thing when  came here last time( i came here in late spring Total paradise is covered with lot of snow).



I spent time till  there is a light I did not hike any trails at Paradise, i thought doing it next day.   It was very nice view from bottom of Paradise parking lot. I spent lot of time to capture glaciers in zoom. After spending time in Paradise, i went to campground i was preparing to complete dinner.




I met one old american couple, i had a chat for few minutes with them. they were going to evening Park Ranger program, they asked me to come as it sort of celebration of 100 years of National Park Service. 

As 99 years completed since starting NPS  organization.

 It was very informative about why NPS is started in the first place, what was its goals and responsibilities, How National parks came into picture, how National parks got recognized, then how National monuments are identified, How NPS service got evolved to many services, apart of National park and national monuments.


I really enjoyed evening Ranger program it more than an hour program. I have a small video clips of Mount rainier NP landscape since it was established. I have video clips of Mount rainier how it looks like 99 years back. it was really shocking to see how much Glaciers on Mount Rainier has reduced.