Friday, April 08, 2016

G is for Glacier

Keeping up with this A-Z is tough.  I’m writing this late on Thursday night, after getting back from a Dr. John concert in the Lucas Theater in Savannah.  It was a great show!  I told someone this afternoon that I was going to see Dr. John and they asked if he was checking my leg (they didn’t realize I was referring to a musician).   Dr. John and the Nite Trippers are from New Orleans.

We’re up to the letter G.  Where might I want to go?  High on the list would have been Greenland, but I have already been there (incredible fiords).  I live in Georgia, although Russian Georgia would be a bit exotic.  And then there is the Ganges, a river that I would enjoy seeing along with the religious sites of the Hindus.  But first, there are a couple of national parks that I would really like to visit (I have been in 26 National Parks and a half dozen National Seashores/Lakeshores).  I have yet to visit Glacier.  Well, actually I have, but it was at night.  Years ago, I took the “Empire Builder,” the Amtrak train from Chicago to Seattle that runs on the old Great Northern Line which cuts the south corner of Glacier.  The train was scheduled to arrive during daylight but unfortunately a derailment of a bunch of oil tank cars in Eastern Montana delayed us.  We arrived at Glacier at night.

 Image: Wikipedia / Tobias Klenze 
Any trip to Glacier National Park would include a road trip on the Going to the Sun Road which traverses the middle of the park.  This is supposed to be one of the great drives in America and I wonder how it would stack up to the drive through Rocky Mountains National Park in Colorado or the Beartooth Highway which runs from Red Lodge Montana to the north entry of Yellowstone.  I’ve done both of those drives (and would rate the Beartooth Highway as my favorite).  In addition to driving, I’d want to spend a few days backpacking in the wilderness.  This is grizzly country and I’ve yet to see any even though I have backpacked in grizzle territory.  It seems that black bears are more attracted to me as I've blogged about in 2006.

I need to make this trip before 2030, as there isn't expected to be any glaciers left by then.  However, the park will still show the work of glaciers that shaped the landscape.

29 comments:

  1. Some church friends all love Glacier National Park and one of Nevada Barr's (a guilty pleasure) books (Blood Lure) is set there. That would be an awesome trip!

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    1. I read Nevada Barr's book while backpacking on Isle Royale (a national park in Michigan that's in Lake Superior and closer to Minnesota and Canada than Michigan)

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  2. Wish I could do some time jumping and go back to the ice age when glaciers were big!

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    1. and the mammals were even larger than grizzles?

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  3. Wow, as well traveled as you are and here I have two of your bucket list now that I've been on. I really loved Glacier, especially the hiking which allows you to get away from all the people fairly easily. My favorite hike was along the Going To The Sun road. We started at Logan Pass and hiked the Highline Trail to the Granite Park chalet on the other end. We saw people the first half mile on each end of the trail but the middle miles we had all to ourselves and the bears of which we saw quite a bit of fresh scat. Once we got to the chalet, we hiked down to the road and hitch hiked back to our car at Logan pass which was quite easy to do with all the traffic along the road. We also hiked out to Grinnell Glacier which was absolutely gorgeous but that had more foot traffic.

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    1. I think I remember reading about your trip--there's lots of places still to explore, one lifetime isn't enough!

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  4. We ALL need to get there fast. I was there as a kid, but didn't appreciate it as much as I would now.

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  5. Fun how you romp through the alphabet and the globe! Thanks for visiting. You are so welcome anytime!

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  6. So much beauty in the world. I really do need to get out more.

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  7. Isn't that a sad bit of news about the glaciers? Guess we'd all better get ourselves up north before they vanish.

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    1. Yeah, and as the vanish, the water surrounding my island rises higher...

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  8. We were oin Beartooth till it connected to Chief Joseph as we headed to Cody. Great drive all around! Glacier is on our list as well and it's one place I think we will for sure get to.

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    1. The Beartooth is quite a drive (but my five day backpacking in the mountains there was even more memorable).

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  9. I've never been there. I've heard it is quite amazing.

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  10. Wow, now I even want to visit Greenland!

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    1. I've not written about my trip to Greenland--when I am done with this...

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  11. We visited two glaciers when we were in New Zealand - Fox and Franz Josef. They were awesome and I loved the blue colour. Glacier National Park looks beautiful perhaps I will visit one day. Sue @Sizzling60 from
    Sizzling Towards Sixty

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  12. I sometimes go on Google Maps and look at all the parks I want to go to. There are so many I haven't visited yet.

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  13. It's sad that glaciers are melting at such an alarming rate. People better move away from the coasts because the sea level is gonna rise significantly.

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  14. I have seen lots of pics of Glacier National Park, but I would love to see it in person!!

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  15. I loved the post, but I had to mention that you gave me my first laugh of the day with the reference to your friend asking about Dr. John and your leg. Funny!

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  16. Speaking of glaciers :-)
    We should really see some while we're in Switzerland!

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