Day 26 - GNP

All I can say is wow.  I think it is possible to overdose on awesome natural beauty and today was the day to do it.  Of course only getting 3 hours of sleep probably had something to do with that overwhelmed feeling as well.

car-top carrier shot

We drove the (deservedly) famous Going-to-the Sun Road through the park stopping numerous times along the way and took approximately a gazillion pictures.  Interestingly, it appears that you can't actually see or experience glaciers from the road.  Instead you have to use the many hiking trails through the park to reach the glaciers.

In an earlier post I said Yellowstone is the Disney World of the NPS. Well, Glacier is the Disney Land of the NPS.  This place was crowded and developed.  Parking at attractions was scarce and non-

east entrance/exit
note the gas price

the visitor center we had to pass on

existent at the Logan Pass visitor center which led people to do stupid things with their cars.  We made it out of the park's east entrance in one piece and stopped in Shelby, MT at a newly constructed Best Western to recuperate.  Armed with our new found knowledge of GNP and how things work at the NPS we are going to have to take a separate road-trip someday to really be able to experience Glacier. There are so many hikes to cool things that a week may not be enough time but will certainly be better than the six hours we gave it. Tomorrow it is off to Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) where we roll the dice again on getting a campsite.  TRNP doesn't have a status page or reservable sites and we will be arriving in the evening.  Let's hope it works out and that there isn't some pig wrestling festival going on that has all the hotels and campgrounds in North Dakota filled.

(Note: never heard of Theodore Roosevelt National Park? Neither had we. It just so happened that when we mapped our route, we found this national park that lay almost exactly in the middle of two driving days. And since we had already bought our National Parks Annual Pass, we decided it was perfect, we had to go check it out. -Katrina)