7.25.26 St. Mary/East Glacier KOA
We came to the East Side of Glacier so we could take a Red Bus Tour from this side. This way we didn't have to leave Marley too long. This park was way out in the country. It was very quiet....still pricey because of the location to Glacier National Park.
Cross-Country
Run across the bridge: Parts of Forrest's iconic cross-country run used
backdrop views of the mountains inside the Saint Mary Entrance and the St. Mary
Lake area. The bridge crosses the river as you enter the park from the east.
Interesting
tidbit: Because the shoot required a long cross-country run and Tom Hanks was
not always available, his real-life brother, Jim Hanks, acted as the stand-in
double for Forrest during the running scenes in Montana.
Great guide,
Christie. She made several stops for photo ops.
We learned how
the Going to the Sun Road was designed to fit into the landscape and be a
scenic drive.
The
Shining (1980)
We stopped
at a famous movie site in St. Mary’s Lake. In the middle of the lake is tiny
Wild Goose Island providing an iconic view that was featured in the opening
credits of the movie “The Shining”. Our guide also pointed out where the famous
aerial shots of the opening sequence of the film, following Jack's red
Volkswagen to the resort driving along a winding mountain road on Glacier's
Going-to-the-Sun Road with additional footage later used in Blade Runner.
The exterior
shots of the Overlook Hotel in the movie were filmed at the Timberline Lodge in
Oregon where we drove up the mountain while there.
The Real
Story of Goose Island
When the
tribal warriors arrived on the island, all they found were two geese, tenderly
rubbing necks. They flew away and never returned. From then on, the small
island in the center of St. Mary's Lake in Glacier National Park was known as
Wild Goose Island.
Below is a Thimbleberry Bush. Our tour guide said the leaves are very soft and they refer to them as "natures toilet paper." The berries are gone from this bush.
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East
Tunnel- 408 foot
tunnel through Piegan Mountain.
Lunch
Creek flows down a
natural rock staircase from the backdrop of Pollock Mountain.
Below: The Triple
Arches in Glacier National Park is a historic, 65-foot-long reinforced concrete
and masonry bridge built in 1927 along the Going-to-the-Sun Road. It was
designed to span deep, vertical mountain rifts along the Garden Wall on Pollock
Mountain as a creative, cost-effective alternative to massive retaining walls.
The Triple
Arches on the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park serves as an
organic structural tribute to the three construction workers who lost their
lives building the historic highway between 1926 and 1928. Rather than an
imposing separate statue, the three-arch bridge itself functions as
their lasting monument.
2013: A 64-year-old hiker suffered fatal
trauma after a fall along the narrow ledge section west of Logan Pass.
On July 25, 2022, rescuers recovered the bodies of mountaineers Brian Kennedy and Jack Beard, who had set off together on July 21 to climb Dusty Star Mountain.
Kennedy and
Beard, who were both 67 and lived in Montana, were experienced climbers who had
been hiking Glacier’s towering peaks for decades. They visited the
1,583-square-mile park in northwest Montana so often that some staffers even
knew them personally, per a statement from the National Park Service.
Family
members reported the men missing on July 24, after they did not return home as
planned, and park rangers found their vehicle at the trailhead.
Also on
July 25,2022, a
79-year-old man from Florida fell to his death while climbing a steep,
off-trail slope on Rising Wolf Mountain with a group of friends, according to a
statement from park officials. The friends called for help and dialed 911,
which alerted the park of the emergency.
Though park
officials said the two incidents are unrelated and likely just a coincidence,
they’re a stark reminder of the risks of climbing in Glacier, which is home to
brittle sedimentary rock formations that can easily crumble.
2025 A 73-year-old Iowa woman on
Wednesday fell to her death after tripping and falling off the Highline Trail
in Glacier National Park, according to a news release.
Diane Bunker
of Muscatine, Iowa, sustained fatal injuries after falling 450 feet, out of
sight from the large group she was hiking with. The fall occurred between Big
Bend and Triple Arches.
Park staff
at 11 a.m. on Aug. 27 were alerted of the fall and closed the Going-to-the-Sun
Road from Logan Pass to Big Bend for about an hour. Two Bear Air was dispatched
to the scene and recovered her body below the trail before a transfer to the
Flathead County coroner at the Apgar horse corrals, according to officials.
nationalparknews
2025
Three
visitors had a brush with death at Glacier National Park after falling into a
gorge while posing for a photo, according to the National Park Service.
They were
part of a group of four people from Florida taking a picture on the rocks above
Avalanche Gorge at about 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 6, 2025. That’s when one person
fell into the water. Two others fell in while trying to help. Two were swept
all the way down the gorge, and bystanders performed CPR on them, successfully
resuscitating them.
Meanwhile,
the other individual was able to grab onto tree branches in the gorge. A park
ranger rappelled to him and secured him until a technical rescue team retrieved
both the individual and the ranger.
All three
were taken to Logan Health hospital in Kalispell, Montana. One was flown in an
ambulance helicopter called A.L.E.R.T. The two others were taken by ambulance.
They are all reported to be in stable condition.
Next up...Grinnell Glacier!
7.27.26 Al went on a full day-long hike to Grinnell Glacier and brought back some gorgeous photos. I created a separate post for that hike because I just couldn't cut anything out. Stay tuned for that post coming soon!
2 comments:
Beautiful pictures!
Those mountains are beautiful!
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