Rainbow Road

June 14, 2010  Rainbow Road

Or Rainbow Lake or Rainbow River—I think that is what the rivers and lakes in Glacier National Park should be called.  The stones that have been washed or oxidized the limestone come in every shade of the rainbow.  There should also be a Mirror Lake instead of McDonald and Flat Head Lakes as you can see a perfect mirror of the mountains in the lake.  I have only see a lake this still and clear in my life once before in Germany.  It’s an amazing sight.

I couldn’t quite place my finger on the difference between Glacier and Yellowstone/Tetons at first and then it dawned on me how much more peaceful the area is in relationship to its southern sisters.  Glacier, first off is quiet.  The forest is dense and old and many sounds are muffled.  On top of that it doesn’t reek of the tourism of Yellowstone and people are not on a mad pace to see everything that Yellowstone has to offer in a short period of time.  I find Glacier extraordinarily peaceful and calming.  My favorite part of the day was building a dam with Mr. Hawking in the river’s edge.  It was so much fun diverting the water flow and polishing new rocks and looking at the marvelous colors.  We literally could have spent hours together doing this, but we had a hike to finish through the Cedar trail and then on to a boat trip on McDonald Lake.

The Cedar Trail was amazing.  This forest has trees that are hundreds upon hundreds of years old.  There are waterfalls everywhere which we all adore.  And it was the perfect length for my two rug rats.  We’ve decided to change Little Miss Sunshine (LMS) to Little Miss Know-it-All, since she corrects us on context all of the time.  Today, when we were discussing going home following the boat trip, she informed us quite imperiously that we don’t have a home, we have a hotel.  These types of comments have been happening a lot lately.

Our boat trip was guided by an 84 year old park ranger named Doug.  He has been a ranger at Glacier for 51 years.  His knowledge and stories of the park are amazing and you can see that he feels as he has grown old and changed, the park has too.  I think he will be quite happy to die in this park.  He was so cute.  I could have just given him a bunch of kisses and hugs.  He was so adorable.  Although I am not sure an 84 year old man would like to be considered adorable.  We’ll see!:)

We are unable to complete the Going to the Sun route since the Logan Pass is still snowed in.  Yes, Jane, it is June and yes, there is still snow in the mountains.  In fact, we are a tad concerned about one route to Lewis that has been snowed in this past week….hmmmm…The Sailor assures me that this won’t be a problem.  We did the first 15 miles of the Going to the Sun Road today and tomorrow we will drive around to St. Mary’s to do the Eastern entrance and as far as it will allow us to go as well as a couple of hikes.  I have yet to find Elk Medallions.  I am a tad sick of Lunchables that we take on our hikes.  Easy and cheap, but I am sure my cholesterol is through the rough.

An addendum to the Yellowstone trip: I forgot to mention that on our last day in Yellowstone we drove to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  You step out on these viewing boxes to see this amazing Grand Canyon and two extraordinary waterfalls.  Unfortunately, I am plagued with depth perception issues and heights make me a little nervous.  Stepping out over this gorge immediately sends my head into a tizzy and I literally felt the bottom fall out of my stomach.  I thought I might hurl.  UGH.  What a terrible sensation for such an amazing view.  We got to see an osprey nest and every time the babies ran up to the edge to see the gorge and waterfalls, mommy almost had a heart attack.

And the Sailor was relieved to get a text message as we left Glacier finding out that the Tigers are off to Omaha.  If only we didn’t have to be in Washington this week, we’d be backtracking to Omaha – so the Sailor says!

The Volvo’s issues keep mounting.  The passenger side window is now cracked.  In case you haven’t been keeping up, the list of issues as is follows on this trip:

Engine Light comes on and off; electrical surge with warning of LMS’s door being opened when closed, air bag failure, lights coming on, passenger side mirror fell off and broke and has been replaced by one that is not the right size, coolant issues, electric window on passenger door broken and now a broken window.  Oh, and my car got backed into.  I must note that in driving my Volvo the last 5 years I have not had ONE problem with this.  I take it in to ensure that it’s all ship shape for the trip and look what happens.  I still love my car, but really.  This is ridiculous.

On the upside, I am so relaxed from Glacier, I don’t seem to care.  We’ll be at Fort Lewis by Thursday and I have a hold list of shinola to take care of.  And now, if transportation would only call us to schedule the delivery of our household goods, we will be right as rain.