Day 16….(Enterprise and Spock nowhere to be seen)
We set off with coats, cooler, chewing gum and sunshine bright and early for St Marys, the little town which is the Eastern gateway to Glacier Park.
The most famous part of this park is The Road To The Sun, which is 50 miles long, narrow, windy-windy and preciperous. ( new word) Anyway, we get to the entrance, only to be told by the ranger that due to landslides and snow and other inconsiderate natural phenomenenons, ( another new word) the road is only open for the first 13 miles, hardly enough to get to the first 1000 ft pass. So, we stopped at every photo opportunity, and they were spectacular. This park is more about the scenery than the wildlife, although there are over 300 grizzlies, 600 black bears, mountain lions, lynx and wolves here. There are also a gazzilion acres so they got plenty of room to hide!
We stopped at one place, where it said “St Mary’s Falls” and a little arrow pointing down a path. This will be a nice stroll, we thought, to the waterfall, being careful to make lots of noise, to scare away all the above mentioned grizzlies, black bears etc.
So, 2 ½ miles later, after a long slog downhill, and a longer slog uphill, we finally get to the falls. Of course, it was worth the trip, but then we had to come back!!
Out here in the wilderness, there are no rest stops, or concession stands, so we was thirsty.
And, we found the answer to the age old question of what bears do in the woods.
Yes!
And, we met up with a local Ranger, and while we were talking to him, Marla spotted, sitting on a log, a wolverine. These are very rare, and was confirmed after checking all the internet stuff we could find.
We then went to another part of the park known as Many Glacier, why the S is missing who knows but that is how the spelling is.
This was not as pretty, more for those foolish hikerist people.
On the way back we did see some bison roaming on the open plains with the cattle.
“From the mountains, to the prairies……..”
We got it all here, just a beautiful, open part of the country.
Now for the interesting stuff. We told you yesterday we are in the middle of the Blackfeet Reservation, and I read the local publication today, and listed below are names taken from the paper. No lies, nothing made up, all real people’s names.
Jesse Blackweasel.
Aleah Old Mouse.
Valerie Calf Boss Ribs.
Victor Mad Plume.
Andrew Spotted Wolfe.
Jesse Heavy Runner.
Kimberly Bullchild.
Merlin Bird Rattler.
Loni Birdsbill.
Lindy Running Crane.
Jonathan Arrow Top Knot.
Steve After Buffalo.
And my two favorites……
George Kicking Woman.
And from the obituary column, Herb Still Smoking.
We will be setting up a travel blog, on travelblog.org, and once we have worked out how to use it, we will let y’all know the site name etc, so you can get really bored looking at a lot more pix!!
