The Goin' to the Sun Road

One of the oldest gems of the National Park Service is the Goin' to the Sun Road. Built in 1932 as a scenic route through the Rocky Mountains, the road traverses the park running east-west for 52 miles. I've waited many years to finally take this trip and was not in the least disappointed.


The road starts at the base of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park.

The lake is fed by mountain streams. The rocks in the foreground are park of the roadway. As you can see you get pretty close.



The streams cascade down to the lake very quickly. It's quite spectacular.


One of the best views is the top of Heaven's Gate.

These are just some the many stunning views you see from the road.

Many visitors travel the road in this buses. They were built in the 1930's in Cleveland by the White Motor company. They were restored in the 1990's by Ford and are fueled by propane.


The road hugs against the walls of the cliffs and the drop is straight down on the other side.


This is called the Weeping Wall. You will actually get a car wash on this side of the road. It was useful in cleansing off the bug specimens I collected along the way.


Night time is a good time to drive the road. Every part of the day offers new views of the mountain ranges. We drove the road three times during our stay.

Copyright 2007 James D. Fisher
All Rights Reserved.

Heading North

I forgot to provide a picture of Old Faithful at Yellowstone. It is the only regularly predicted geyser in the park.


Here she goes blasting about 60-80 ft. in the air.


Many people wait and watch and photograph.


Leaving Yellowstone we head north to Glacier National Park. We stopped in the town of Virginia City, Montana, which has an interesting and lively history. It was a rough and tumble place in the 1800's with gun-slinging and rustling and everything else. The town even has a Boot Hill with the graves of criminals hung by town vigilantes. Virginia City maintains about 100 buildings from those days.


Next stop before Glacier is Missoula and a weekend visit with old friend Steve Begleiter. Steve teaches at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. He has a wonderful wife and former actress, Katy, who teaches at the local schools. They have two young children, Makesh and Makita, which keeps them young at heart. This is the first picture of Steve and me since college.


Now off to Glacier. Here is a view from Many Glacier Road on the east side of the park.

Next I'll post images from the Going to the Sun Road.

Copyright 2007 James D. Fisher
All Rights Reserved.