Saturday, July 4, 2009

Trip to Glacier National Park

Flathead Lake, below Kalispell, is the largest natural body of fresh water west of the Mississippi. It is truly beautiful with clear, cold waters. We dipped our toes into the lake to say we had done it!

In 1854, St. Ignatius Mission, located between Missoula and Polson, was founded to serve the religious and educational needs of the Salish and Kootenai people. Father Hoecken and his Jesuit helpers built the original log cabin with still stands on the north side of this church. Within 35 years the mission included a large school, a sawmill, printing press, flour mill, hospital, farm, and the present church.

The renowned murals in this church were painted by Br. Joseph Carignano, S.J., the mission cook. In 1973, this mission was declared a national historic site.

The 'Going-to-the-Sun Road' follows along a nearly vertical cliff in some places. I can't imagine the tremendous, back-breaking job the very early road builders must have had! Now there is construction all along the way with modern machines, much easier.

This is Reynolds Mountain, right behind the visitor center at Logan Pass. Myriads of wildflowers were in bloom, scattered over the whole area. Gorgeous! The most prominent, the yellow ones, are glacier lilies.

The views are so awesome, we felt we'd died and gone to heaven! This is Heaven's Peak.

Here we are, stopped for construction, looking down on the road we'd just ascended. Wow!

Keith has a contest going with our daughter—who can find the biggest doodoo. Here he is hollering into a tunnel. "Doodoodoodoo". A family joke!

1 comment:

Char said...

Wow, what awesome pictures! All that snow certainly makes me shiver...