We rose way too early this morning.
We left Rising Sun Campground on the east side of Glacier NP and headed up the Going-to-the-Sun Road at about 6:15 AM. The idea was to beat the traffic and get to the Apgar Campground on the west side of the park before it filled for the day. As we got out on the road, Ellen reminded me that it was early and we needed to watch for wildlife. No sooner had she said that, we rounded a curve to come up on three mule deer, munching by the side of the road. That was our only big animal sighting for the day.
There are three sections of the road that are under construction, two on the east side of Logan Pass, that we had ridden through earlier on our bikes, and one on the west side of the pass, that we hadn't seen. During the week the traffic was very heavy and was backed up at each construction site because it was restricted to one-lane. There was no Sunday work on the east side, at least at the time we went through, just a temporary traffic light on a one-lane section around a sharp bend. Once we got over the pass and crossed the Continental Divide, we reached the second area, where they were actually working at 7 AM on a Sunday. We were stopped for a 20-minute delay while they moved gravel through and graded sections of the road.
Once past that, it was all downhill and clear for the next 30+ miles to Apgar, not counting the narrow road, many blind corners and overhanging rocks. It was a spectacular ride, at least for Ellen, who wasn't driving at the time. Looking at the map, the distance from Apgar to Logan Pass is about twice that from Rising Sun to the pass, so I'd hoped the grade was gentler. It wasn't. Much of the drive is along the McDonald Creek and Lake McDonald and is quite flat.
There is evidently no easy way up to Logan Pass, a fact probably well known by the cyclist in racing gear who we passed us just before the pass and then left us in the dust after the construction stop, and who we saw once more coming back up the road as we were still descending the steep part. Twice over Logan Pass was obviously his Sunday morning ride.
It wasn't long after 8:30 when we reached the Apgar Campground. It is much larger than Rising Sun and has four relatively flat, wooded campsite loops. Lots of Class A RVs and big travel and fifth-wheel trailers here. Circled the loops a couple of times, seeing only a few openings on each loop, so we picked one that was pretty nice with a few trees between the parking spot and the loop road. We got Speedy settled, had breakfast, grumbled at the squirrel in the tree above the van who kept dropping cones on us, got out the bikes and headed off to Apgar Village and the little town of West Glacier. When we returned at noon, the campground was about half empty.
We could have slept in.
It is much different here, compared to the east side. At St. Mary and Rising Sun, and Many Glacier as well, one is surrounded by the mountains and the lakes are embedded in them. Here, it is much flatter and there are no views from the campground. When you go to Apgar Village and Lake McDonald, there is a great view out to the mountains but they are now a far away vista. We had originally planned a week on the east side and a week on the west side, but now I'm not so sure.
Apgar Village is quite small with the NPS Visitor Center (much smaller than the one at St. Mary)), a general store/restaurant/ice cream stand (Eddie's), a lodge (not a classic railroad hotel, but more like a motel) and a couple of gift shops. It was very busy and crowded, even more so than the town of Waterton, which was much larger. West Glacier, outside the park didn't seem much bigger, but it had a better stocked store, even fruits and vegetables.
Today is going to be a lazy day for us, catching up on email and posting photos and blog posts, since we do have better wireless broadband access here (again via our Verizon MiFi). We'll probably take the bikes out again to see what is up the road and plan for tomorrow.
Photos
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