Snow in July? (Glacier National Park Post)

After a lazy morning, we rode our bikes down to the Saint Mary's Visitors Center.  It was about a mile away from our campsite.  Timber had to stay home in the RV back at our campsite.  

We boarded a shuttle, and rode all the way to Logan's Pass on the Going-To-The-Sun Highway.

I found it slightly humorous to see all the wildflowers in the meadow, and then have snow in 90 degree weather.  

Going-to-the-sun Mountain, which gave the highway its name.

   

A ground squirrel!

Although this looks a bit like the inside of Harvey, this is the inside of the shuttle.  It was built on the same Sprinter chassis.  I got the special seat - up in front next to the driver!

The weeping wall.  

We took a hike and all of the signs were written in Haiku poetry.

Is the glacial water cold, Karen?

Dad and Karen skipping back on the hike.  

 The trip home on the shuttle.  

 The History of Glacier!  The first evidence of use of the land was back about 10,000 years ago.  When the first European explorers arrived in this area of the land, several Native American tribes controlled the land.  These explorers looked for beaver pelts, and were followed by miners, and finally immigrants and settlers searching for a place to live.  The completion of the Great Northern Railway in 1891 made it easier for settlers, and towns began to develop.  At the turn of the eighteenth century, people began noticing the beauty of the land and saw it as more than land to farm or mine.  Many people, such as the influential George Bird Grinnell, began pushing for the land to be protected as a national park.  Grinnell Glacier in the park is named for George Bird Grinnell.  In 1910, President William Taft signed the bill creating Glacier as the 10th national park.   The beauty of the rugged peaks, clear blue water, and glacial carved valleys draw many people to visit.