We opted for the Red Bus Tour of Glacier because unlike our friends Karen and Steve (Gone by RV) we can't go hiking too far. We both have foot problems which limits our distance severely. Mary has Shingles related nerve damage and I have several areas in both feet with arthritis damage (bone on bone). So we rode the bus.
The Red Bus tours are a staple of Glacier National Park. The original busses were built by White Motors (a truck builder) in the 1930s. They had wooden frames, cable operated brakes, manual transmissions (drivers were known as jammers since the transmissions had straight tooth, non-synchronized, transmissions which required jamming the transmission into gear and lots of double clutching and noise to shift), and operated unchanged until the 1990s when frame cracking was found and all busses were "grounded". The park tried other buses but they just didn't have the draw that the Red Busses had. Ford Motor stepped in and refurbished one bus so dignitaries would have something that worked and carried on the tradition. After some serious negotiations, the remaining busses were transferred to a non-profit organization and Ford donated the time and labor to refurbish the remaining fleet. So buses now have 5.4L Ford V8s, automatic transmissions, disc brakes, steel frames and are propane powered. The bodies are still wood framed just like the original and the experience of touring is pretty much original but a lot safer.
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| Our bus, #112. There are 4 rows of seats, each seating 4 people. The roof rolls back and so we had open air all day. |
Our tour took us from the West visiter center to the Lake McDonald Lodge, Logan Pass and on to Many Glacier. All buses have to have a driver. Here's ours:
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| Decker, the driver. |
Decker and his wife both work for the park concessionaire, and live in a tent by Lake McDonald. A little more cavalier than us fulltime RVers.
Besides our aching feet, there's another reason to take the busses - you can't take pictures while driving on the Going to the Sun Road. It's a bit too narrow and pullouts are kind of hard to find when neat things suddenly appear - like this young grizzly bear.
Well it was onward and upward towards to Logan Pass after this.
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| The waterfall in the center of the picture is also the one below. Yes, the road has steep drop offs and the guard rail is a stone wall. |
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| Looking back down the valley we just came up. The road is that horizontal line on the right side of the picture. |
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| A bit of glacial sculpting can be seen on this mountain's curved face. |
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| Logan Pass parking lot with a glacier or two behind. |
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| Logan Pass is a popular starting point for a number of trails. In the picture above, the trail goes in that general direction to Lost Lake and in this picture there is a trail that heads towards Bishop's Hat (the pointy mountain in the left center). |
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| I believe this is a pika, which is a high altitude ground squirrel. There are several nests close to the visiter center and these guys don't move. People apparently don't phase them in the least. |
The sad reality of Glacier National Park is that the glaciers are melting and at a rate that says you have only 20-30 years more before they are all gone.
This is the end of part one. Next segment covers Logan Pass to Many Glaciers.
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