We knew we were going to be in Glacier before Going to the Sun Road opened for the season so we knew we wouldn’t get the entire Glacier experience.  The road was open on the east side from St. Mary to Jackson Glacier and on the west side from Apgar to Avalanche Lake.  The marquee sites of Logan Pass and the weeping wall and all those crazy, scary drop-offs were still being plowed.  The “big drift”   was over 40 feet deep this year.

We were in Glacier in August 2002.  Coincidentally, I noted in my travel journal that on June 8-10, 2002 they had 4 feet of snow at Many Glacier and 2 feet at St. Mary.  Those were the same dates we visited this year and we had much better weather.  Although, as we traveled from the east side of the park to the west one afternoon, the temperature dropped 30 degrees in about 20 minutes and then this happened.

The good news is it was only for a couple of miles and then the temperature shot back up.

We got to do a couple of good hikes (Avalanche Lake and Red Rock Falls) and enjoyed the fact that there weren’t huge crowds.

One of the reasons I wanted to go back to Glacier (besides the fact that it’s gorgeous) is that I keep reading that the glaciers are shrinking and will all be gone by 2030.  Since all of the roads weren’t open, the closest glacier we could view was Jackson Glacier.  I am anxious to compare this picture to one from 2002.  When you look at this, note that the center peak is snow – the left (small amount) is actual glacier.  It doesn’t look promising.  So – if you haven’t been to Glacier National Park – you should go now!