Day 11 Rising Sun to West Glacier

August 19 2008
Miles total today - 46
Miles ridden total - 604
Elevation climbed - 2447 feet
Elavation at West Glacier - 3181 feet


We arose early and climbed to the rising sun. Not many vehicles on the road that early. Many photographers positioning for optimal light were present.


Going-to-the-Sun Road is the main parkway through the heart of Glacier National Park ; in Montana . This engineering marvel spans 50 miles through the park's wild interior, winding around mountainsides and treating visitors to some of the best sights in northwest Montana.

It was completed in 1932 , and it is the only road that crosses the park, going over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass. The road, a National Historic Landmark and a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark , spans 53 miles (85 km) across the width of the park.

The road is one of the most difficult roads in North America to snowplow in the spring. Up to 80 feet (25 m) of snow can lie on top of Logan Pass, and more just east of the pass where the deepest snowfield has long been referred to as Big Drift. The road takes about ten weeks to plow, even with equipment that can move 4000 tons of snow in an hour. The snowplow crew can clear as little as 500 feet (150 m) of the road per day. On the east side of the continental divide, there are few guardrails due to heavy snows and the resultant late winter avalanches that have repeatedly destroyed every protective barrier ever constructed. The road is generally open from early June to mid October.



The two lane Going-to-the-Sun Road is quite narrow and winding, especially west of Logan Pass. Consequently, vehicle lengths over the highest portions of the roadway are limited to 21 feet and that means no recreational vehicles or trailers in excess of this length restriction are permitted beyond two larger parking areas, each located at lower points dozens of miles below Logan Pass, on both the west and east sides of the parkway.



The road is named for Going to the Sun Mountain, which dominates the eastbound view beyond Logan Pass. One possibly apocryphal story tells of the deity Sour Spirit, who returned to the sun after teaching hunting to the Blackfeet, leaving his image on the mountain.