#16 Going to the Sun Road

Waterton Glacier International Peace Park straddles the longest undefended border crossing in the world between Canada and The United States. The park is part of the Rocky Mountain chain and is home to 50 or more mountains and dozens of glaciers.
The main road in the park is The Going to the Sun Rd that winds its way up the side of the mountains to the Logan Pass at 6628 feet.
Logan pass opened yesterday, July 13, 2011 at 0742 H That is the latest opening date since WW2 when there was a lack of equipment because of the war. The late opening was because of the abnormal heavy snowfall this past winter.
Apparently everyone for about 500 miles around was waiting for the road to open because it was really busy and stop and go traffic for the entire 52 mile length. That turned out to be a benefit because we had lots more time to view the sights and take pictures with out pulling off the road.

But before that we hiked the Avalanche trail, 2 miles each way through the forest, up and down, across mud holes, over roots in grizzly bear and mountain lion country. We were the first ones on the trail and had it to ourselves all the way in, that hike rewarded us with a incredible view of a lake and six waterfalls cascading down the mountainside. It was breathtaking.
We sat for some time just admiring the view until the crowd began to show up.
Nope, never saw a grizzly or mountain lion but Keith kept hoping.
Leaving there we drove the sun road up to 6626 feet through the grandeur of God's creation deep vallies of lush green, towering snow covered mountains peaks, glaciers above the treeline, non stop beauty all the way to Logan's Pass where the snow is still over 30 feet deep. The unique location of the pass allows the snow to drift and combined with a exception heavy snowfall this past winter accounts for the amount of snow. There were dozen of skiers enjoying the slopes above the visitors centre, they could get a certificate saying they skied in July.
Heading east downhill we again enjoyed the scenery at a slow pace with plenty of opportunity to record the views.We cross back into our homeland of Canada while still in the park and continued north towards Lethbridge AB.
Our journey is nearly 1/3 over we have travelled 4838 miles in 27 days and truly enjoyed every mile. after seeing the U.S. national parks we now head to the 2nd oldest national park in the world at Banff.
What do you think so far, are you travelling with us, please let us know. Diane & Keith