The Lonely Goat herd

Daily Mileage = 194; Total Trip = 6902
OK This is another song from the Sound of Music but we couldn't resist using it as the blog title today. We saw mountain goats and they rock (in more ways than one). They are really cool. (Yoodle-lay-ee-oo!) And, yes, this is not a real goat but, you would never have seen them in the photos we have of the real ones since they were on a mountain!

Today we drove from the Western part of Glacier NP to the Eastern part. Doesn’t sound far but it takes about two hours. As I mentioned yesterday, there is a pass that actually goes over the Continental Divide, called the Road to the Sun. However, it is not open due to snow and road erosion. Hence our journey the long way.

Actually it was quite nice and our first experience was meeting a deer in the middle of the road (which is 70 MPH). Fortunately, Rich saw him in time to stop and signal the oncoming traffic while I took the obligatory photo that all tourists do. He/she meandered off the road at a leisurely pace.
Next stop was at Goat Lick Overlook (they don’t get too subtle out here) where there happens to be a natural salt lick formation that attracts the mountain goats. These are the big white fury ones (like the one in the photo above) and we did see several. It was quite amazing because I thought they would be in an area that looked more like the Sound of Music hillsides (you can imagine the singing in the car after this stop!). These guys were walking on shear cliffs of mountains that looked like they had been mined and left abandoned. Apparently that’s OK with them. And once you see where they’ll go you know where to look for them in the future.

We spent the rest of the day doing several parts of the park on this side (which is about 1.1million acres in total). So you can see that there is quite a bit of space to cover with very few people around. To say we were in the wildness is an understatement. However there is a lodge way out called Many Glacier Hotel. How could we resist? We tried to stay there but it’s not open for another 2 weeks. So we drove out there anyway. The lodge was built along with several others in the park by the Great Northern Railway as enticements to “See America First” back at the turn of the century. They are very much in line with the Swiss chalet architecture since they marketed Glacier NP as the American Alps. They aren’t off on that description at all (or the marketing theme for that matter).

There is an awful lot of wildlife to see way out there and we started to do one trail when we saw some “poop” on a rather deserted trail. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not the grisly Adams type, so I started to have second thoughts about continuing. (I will mention at this point that Rich, who is the real risk taker, didn’t hesitate too long about turning around either.) When we caught up with the trail on the other side (by car) there were posts indicating that bears have been seen frequently on the trail. OK so we wimped out on the trail, but we did find the answer to the age old question, “Does a bear sh—in the woods?” YES, he sure does!!!

The highlight of our trip after the mountain goat sighting came while we walked around the deserted Many Hotel. We saw a mama moose and her two babies (calves?) not moosettes, as B. Flanagan suggested, frolicking in the water. They were in the distance but we could see them and with binoculars they were really close. It was precious! Rich said they were behaving just like regular kids. The mother was trying to get them together to go back into the woods, and they were running around not paying attention at all. Finally one was alone for a few moments while she left with the other and it dawned on him. “Am I alone?” “Where is she?” As all moms do, she came back one more time and said, “Let’s go now! You’re driving me nuts and we need to get out of here. Just wait until your father hears about this…..” Once again it’s been proven that kids of all types will drive parents crazy. (The most amazing thing was to see the size difference. The babies appeared to be the size of large dogs (like Jake to me) and the mother was huge!)

Now we go back to St. Mary which is just another area that’s to die for and we drive the Road to the Sun as far as we can go on this side of the park. (We are not going to be able to the completely cross over the Continental Divide here but we go as far up as we can on this side.) It’s still quite extraordinary with only the views we get to see. In fact, if I had to choose which side of the park is better (and that’s really difficult to do because they have different kinds of beauty.) I would opt to stay on the Eastern side and visit the Western side. The views are more dramatic here, if that’s possible. They are also more varied: meadows, mountains, glaciers and green slopes.

Lake McDonald that we just came from on the Western side is a beautiful sapphire blue. The lakes here, Lake Sherburne, and St. Mary are emerald green. They are absolutely, breathtaking with their clear huge glacier bodies of water surrounded by mountains. The road that you drive ascends 9 or 10,000 feet and at each hairpin turn there's another photo opportunity and you need to stop. Eventually you realize that you can’t continue to stop because you’ll never get to the end. Then you ask yourself, “Is all this beauty real that I’m looking at?” A minute later you drive on and the next vista comes into view and you’re amazed again as if it’s the first time you’ve seen such a sight. (I’m raving now but between the beauty and the altitude you get a little punchy!)

We then left to get to our lodge for the evening and as we’re driving down yet another view (they are different going up than coming down); we see a gray wolf walk right by us on the side of the road. How lucky are we? At some point it’s not even about capturing the animal on film but just taking in the moment, catching your breath and moving on. Sometimes it takes a few moments to even realize how really cool it was to have just seen the wolf, mountain goat, moose or elk. But you feel the joy and wonder at the same time. These creatures go on their way and we go on ours. We’ve met them for only a few moments but they’ve changed us just like many creatures and people do in our lives.

We are staying at another great lodge. Now when I say “great lodge” please realize that these old lodges in the parks don’t have many modern facilities. They have bathrooms with flushing toilets. The showers are even smaller than the one we had in the master bathroom at One Vincent Road. (I told Rich if I gain any more weight, I will not be able to bend over in the shower and the seat on the toilet will be questionable!) However the architecture and lobbies just transport you back to a different era when travel was for the wealthy and adventuresome. The logs in this lobby were made from 500-800 year old Douglas firs and Cedars (back in 1913). They are still here and look wonderful. There are 60 of them supporting the lodge and they are 36 to 42 inches in diameter and 40 feet long. The site was purchased from the local Indian tribe, the Blackfeet nation, who when they saw the white men building this structure in a year called it, “big tree lodge.” They just don’t build things the way they used to…. (I told Rich I thought we needed a new fireplace that was bigger (the one here you can walk into); he told me to get a grip.)

Here's Rich with his "goat" friend for today!

So life goes on. Once again we are so blessed to see and experience these things. We hope you are enjoying our travels. Since we are here in the spring there is an abundance of wildflowers blooming (an added beautiful touch along with birds that are “first timers” for both of us). We are sending you all a bouquet of these flowers from us. Enjoy!
Peace. Love you all, Mare&Rich