Glacier National ParkApr 19, 2010
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The Train Comes to Glacier
McDonald lake
| As we suspected, much of Glacier National Park is closed because there is still so much snow in the higher elevations. We managed to take in as much as we could today, it couldn’t have been more beautiful. Clear skies, no wind and very warm, a real spring day. We couldn’t drive through the whole park so we never made it to the continental divide, but the view from Lake McDonald was remarkable. The visitor center here was even closed, much to our surprise. We have been going from park to park this whole trip and always stopping at the visitor center, not only to get information about the park we were visiting, but to get our “Parks” book stamped and to buy a hiking stick medallion for Ralph’s walking stick. The parks book is actually a “passport” to the parks, a small book that has info on all the parks and then a section where you can have your book “cancelled” much like a traveling passport, and every park has their own unique stamp. I have been collecting stamps for years. The hiking medallions are much the same, unique to every park and they are metal shields that attach to a walking stick, and Ralph has been collecting them for a long time too. So when we saw that the visitor center was closed, we were very disappointed, no stamps, no medallions and this is probably our last park of this trip and who knows if we will ever make it back again. We found a little gift shop next door and spent some time there, but when I came out, there was a school bus outside, loaded with kids and a ranger talking to the teacher. On the off chance there was another place to get what we wanted, I asked her, she was so nice, she said, if your quick, come on in to the visitors center with the kids here, they are on a special tour, you can get your stamp and no one will be the wiser. So we did and Ralph found his medallion and I got my stamps, we are now happy campers. Back to the rig for an afternoon of relaxing in the sun, tomorrow we head west for home. |
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