Saturday, July 25, 2009

Glacier National Park, Montana




The route bans long or high vehicles and I would suggest that nervous drivers need not apply - there are little red 'buses' that will pick up and drop off passengers anywhere along the road if you need to leave your 35 foot camping trailer behind in the car park.



I think the motorcyclists were having the best experience and views as they were weaving back and forth across both lanes to get a better look at the scenery and the American guys were not wearing crash helmets either which must add to that sense of freedom-wind-in-my-hair moments (right up the point they fall off and crack their skulls open - c'mon guys, even when it's not the law ....).



I was saddened to see yet another example of the devastation caused by the pine beetle that has been moving across many western states of the US and has been silently attacking millions of hectares of the landscape in British Columbia and Alberta amongst many other areas.

I guess nature will sort itself out at some point, but not in my time...





There are still little pockets of snow to be seen across the mountain sides and a couple of mini-glaciers left at the road sides, which people were sliding down, my kids included, which was all just a tad weird bearing in mind it was a toasty 32 degrees outside.








4 comments:

  1. I haven't been out that way in a few years. Thanks for reminding me how beautiful it is.

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  2. Oh, you are welcome Lorac - it really is so very pretty ... sit at the roadside and take a deep breath kind of beautiful.

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  3. That pine beetle damage is scary, isn't it? Just the other day, Russ on a blog I follow posted about it. Quite interesting:
    http://russphotoblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/lemonade.html

    But stunning photos of the rest! I haven't been that way in ages... it's soooo beautiful! (envy ;-))

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  4. Hi marnie - Yep, the damage of those beetles is awful and amazing. As soon as you leave Banff going west, the evidence is clear. Literally mile upon mile of devastated forests. And then, in the middle of this quite lush landscape at Glacier, great swathes of trees wiped out here too. And when you add up all the other states and provinces suffering, this is a major topic. Very sad, but nature will replace it with something, sometime, whenever it's ready!!

    Checked out Russ' blog too - quite the photographer - thanks for that link.

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