2011 Trip - Day 76
Back to Jon Vermilye's
Photo & Trip Page
Other Trips:
Saturday, July 2 -Site A53, Apgar Campground, Glacier National Park, MT - 75.3 + 49.9 miles, 12,772.7 for the trip
I did get to Apgar by 10:00AM & drove through Loop A, the one closest to Lake McDonald & the one I wanted to stay in. It was full, but just like the first time I was at Zion National Park, someone moved to a better site (for them) and offered me their old site. I guess I'm just lucky! Anyhow, I'm in site A53 for the next 3 days. It's a pull through site that is plenty large enough for the trailer & RAV4; the only reason the last people gave it up is it isn't all that level & they had a class B van - they had to level their van every time they came back from a drive. Since the trailer only gets set up once, it is no problem for me. The mileage above is 75.3 to the campground & 49.9 for the round trip to Polebridge described below.
After setting up camp & took a walk to Lake McDonald. I stopped at the boat dock where I took one of my favorite photos (it is the one I use for my "business card" (in quotes because I don't really have a business, but they are handy when someone asks for the website link or under rare circumstances, wants to buy a photo). It is the photo over the link to State & National Parks on my homepage. The old dock has been replaced with a larger & less attractive one, so I went looking for a good location to duplicate the image. The best I found is in back of the lake front motel.
After that I went to Polebridge. I've been told by more than one Glacier visitor that you are not "official" until you make the drive to Polebridge & buy a Cinnamon Roll at the Polebridge Mercantile. It is a 24 mile drive, a portion on good road, another portion a good gravel road, and the final section a heavily potholed "barely paved" road. Although I've seen many complaints about the road, I've driven far worse on this trip!
The Polebridge Mercantile is a busy place that sells limited groceries & camping supplies and had a very good bakery. I had a hot roast beef sandwich (pretty good) a cinnamon roll (excellent) and a sticky bun that I will try tonight. Most of the trees on the way out to Polebridge are dead. Not sure if it is fire or insect damage, but while it does let you see Lake McDonald on the first part of the drive, the dead trees don't look all that attractive in photographs. Of course, a mixed blessing - if the trees were alive you wouldn't be able to see the lake at all.
 |
 |
 |
 |
The New Dock on Lake McDonald |
The New Location |
A "Red Jammer" |
A "Bear Paw" |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Along the Road to Polebridge |
Polebridge Mercantile |
Along the Road to Polebridge |
Site A53, Apgar Campground, Glacier National Park |
 |
 |
 |
 |
A Pretty Plant |
Lake McDonald |
Lake McDonald |
Horn Players, Glacier National Park |
After that it is back to the campground and time to kick back for the afternoon. After dinner I did go back to Lake McDonald to try to catch a reflection of the mountains, but it never got calm enough. I did meet a family from Manlius, NY, a town about 40 miles from my home town of Oswego. They moved to Missoula & are at the hotel on the lake for a vacation. Small world! By the way, I'll probably be posting far too many photos of Lake McDonald here over the next couple of days - I'm just going to keep at it until I get it right!
While taking photographs & waiting for the calm that never came I kept hearing what sounded somewhat like a tuba concert. On the way back to the campground I passed 3 people playing Alpenhorns (yes, I did have to find the name of them on the internet!) Even stranger than finding them playing at the lake was while they were taking a break a couple from Lichtenstein stopped by to chat with them because they heard a familiar sound!
Till later or tomorrow -
Previous
Next
This page is maintained by: vermilye@oswego.edu
Last Update:
March 20, 2012