Going to the Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana

We visited Glacier National Park on June 22-25. We were hoping to drive the Going-To-The-Sun road from west to east. Although it was planned to be open around June 19, it actually opened two days after we left. Fortunately, we were able to drive about 36 miles of the road from the west.

After driving the road, we understood why it is so difficult to get in open. In addition to plowing the road, the park has to inspect how much of the road was damaged by heavy snowfall and avalanches. There were many areas of the road that were only one lane because big chunks were missing in the other lane. We also saw workers dangling over the edge of the cliffs on which the roads were built inspecting the road. At least the workers were dangling in nice solid metal buckets from heavy equipment unlike their predecessors who built the road by dangling from ropes.

The road was a spectactular drive from a river valley to the sun...at least it felt like you were almost as high as the sun. It was a beautiful day for a drive. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep the windows or sunroof open because the road goes so close to waterfalls that we would have been soaked.