Long day....

*EDIT*
I put some photos today, but not that many because now I am in another time-crunch. Enjoy.

Today is pretty messed up. I had been driving from 9 AM in the morning to 11 PM at night, simply to catch up whatever I missed yesterday... from the St. Ignatius Mission to the Glacier Park. So, I am pretty exhausted now. While I took more than 200 pics today, I don't think I am in the mood to upload as many as usual. Anyway, let just start this blog and we'll see how far this blog goes today before I decide to call it a night.

Well, the map, please:


As you can see, it is pretty messed up. First, I went south to St. Ignatius Mission taking the west side route (93). After I arrived at St. Ignatius, I returned using Route 35 (East side of the lake), then 206 to the Western Entrance of the Glacier. Since we found out that the "Going-to-the-Sun" road was blocked by snow, I took route 2 to the Eastern entrance of the Glacier, then went to the "Many Glacier" and to the east side of the "Going-to-the-Sun" road. From there, when I wanted to return to Livingston, I found that the road was blocked due to an accident, so I had to turn back, taking a road near the border with Canada then going south and driving for around 5 hour, then ended up in Livingston. Damn, I am tired....

Another thing.... Never ever completely trust your GPS. Yesterday, it told me to drive through a dead end to a highway and today, it twice told me to use gravel roads for "shortcut." Finally, it told me to use a route off the highway and my windshield ended up like this:

I think I killed thousand of insects by using that damn shortcut....

*Next day edit*
Still, GPS is not all that bad. It did save me from getting lost on numerous occassions and allows me to find the hotels easily. Still, I hat it when it nags me whenever I pick a route that it does not want (though according to the map, the alternative route is also possible).

Anyway, some pictures, though I won't put as many as usual, since I need to prepare to go to Yellowstone today.

Like I mentioned above, I took the route following the west coast of Flathead Lake, which, if I am not mistaken, is the largest freshwater lake west of Mississippi River. It has a wonderful view, especially early in the morning.




Arriving at St. Ignatius, a town founded by Jesuit Order to serve the Indians. Apparently the Indians loved the Jesuit so much that they actually sent people to St. Louis, Missouri(? - Not sure if I recall this correctly, I have to recheck my note later) to ask for Jesuits to come after the first Jesuit missionaries left the area.


The church has some beautiful murals/paintings. Surprisingly, everything was not painted by a professional painters, but by a cook. That's the main reason why I spent one hour drive down here to this small village and another several hours back north to the Glacier. Does it worth it? Yeah, it is great paintings. However, i wish they will put a much clearer sign on where the church is. It took me a good half hour trying to find this church, before I asked a local. The only sign there directing me to an elementary school.





Scene from the road from St. Ignatius back to the lake.


Eastern route of the lake. While this picture looks great, this is one of very few pictures I took on the eastern route. There are simply very few places to take pictures and the view to the lake is mostly obstructed by trees. So, if you really want to take pictures of the lake, use the western route.


Passing the western entrance to the Glacier, I took Route 2 to the Eastern glacier, since Logan Pass remain closed due to snow until July 1.



Theodore Roosevelt Memorial, planted right on the top of the Continental Divide.


On the road to Many Glacier. The road, frankly, is treacherous, many sharp turns and drops. Thank God I fixed my brake and tires in Minneapolis.



\

There used to be a huge forest fire around here. The charred remains are not a bad sight though.


After you travel many good miles, you will find the ranger station. This is the entrance to "Many Glacier" park. One can't help but to ponder that this seems to be kinda extortion. Okay, you drove like 10+ miles to get here, and if you don't want to pay $25, then you have to go back....


The sceneries inside are excellent though....


The glacier. I was hoping to see it up close, unfortunately, we can only see it from the valley and the glacier was on top of these mountain, buried under snow.


Some other pics



Eastern entrance of the Logan Pass


Excellent views of St. Mary Lake.


More pics on the road to see the Jackson Glacier



Jackson Glacier. Suprisingly, the glacier in this park is only 25% of what it was in 19th Century. The ranger told me that apparently, the glacier will be gone by 2030. So, be sure to visit this place before then.


On the road back to Livingston



Final note: these photos are simply a few selection, considering that I took 250+ photos yesterday. Unfortunately, these photos can't really reflect the true beauty of the scenes there. Anyway, it is time for me to go. Let see if I can post anything tonight.