I absolutely cannot WAIT for this day to arrive! I've dreamed of visiting the famous Going to the Sun Road that cuts through Glacier National Park for years. The views are reputed to be beyond belief, as the pictures hopefully show. We'll start our day in Waterton National Park and make our way down the Chief's Highway, where we 
should have great views of Chief's Mountain, which has been sacred to the Blackfoot Native Americans for hundreds of years. We'll cruise the grasslands until we reach St. Mary's Lake and turn west on Going to the Sun Road, a narrow, winding section of road that 
climbs to Logan Pass through 50 miles of some of the most amazing scenery in the world. St. Mary's Lake is a destination spot for landscape photographers, and I've been drooling over pictures like the one above ever since I first wanted to be Ansel Adams. We'll enter the park as we roll past the St. Mary's Lake, and 
soon we'll start the climb to Logan Pass at the elevation of 6600', which will be a good warm up for the high mountain passes of Colorado, most of which are between 10,000 - 11,500'! I fully plan on picking the smallest gear I have and just spinning up the climb with a slow, easy effort just so I can maximize the time for taking in the views! I guess I'll always be climbing 
passes this way, even though I prefer to climb more powerfully.... I'll have to remember that I'm in this for the LONG haul, day after day, and can't afford to do anything other than low heart-rate, moderate, aerobic cycling. As we start to climb we'll see Mt. Jackson, and the Jackson 
Glacier (5th largest in the park) to the south, and Going to the Sun Mountain on our right to the north. Somewhere along the way, we'll pass the Weeping Wall, where a waterfall seeps out of the mountain-side and soaks the road.... if it's hot, we'll be glad for that! The climb to Logan pass isn't more than 6% for about 7 miles, and then we'll have an amazing 3000', 10 mile descent down the backside with killer views of Bird Woman Falls, which cascades almost 500' down the cliffs below Mt. Oberlin... check out the pic of it below. I normally love fast, twisty mountain descents but I guarantee I'm gonna be on the brakes, crusing, standing up, stretching the legs & back, resting the butt..... and soaking up the world-class views. It'll pass by way too quickly, and I'll be imprinting memories as 
best I can as I realize a dream come true! Once the road flattens again, we'll spin past Lake McDonald, another famous spot for photography that I've always wanted to visit. At this point we'll be pretty tired but exhilarated, and the rest of the riding to our hotel in Hungry Horse, Montana will be mostly moderate, rolling terrain over about 25 miles as we finish the 5th day of the northern part of the Tour de Rockies! Thanks for reading.
should have great views of Chief's Mountain, which has been sacred to the Blackfoot Native Americans for hundreds of years. We'll cruise the grasslands until we reach St. Mary's Lake and turn west on Going to the Sun Road, a narrow, winding section of road that 
climbs to Logan Pass through 50 miles of some of the most amazing scenery in the world. St. Mary's Lake is a destination spot for landscape photographers, and I've been drooling over pictures like the one above ever since I first wanted to be Ansel Adams. We'll enter the park as we roll past the St. Mary's Lake, and 
soon we'll start the climb to Logan Pass at the elevation of 6600', which will be a good warm up for the high mountain passes of Colorado, most of which are between 10,000 - 11,500'! I fully plan on picking the smallest gear I have and just spinning up the climb with a slow, easy effort just so I can maximize the time for taking in the views! I guess I'll always be climbing 
passes this way, even though I prefer to climb more powerfully.... I'll have to remember that I'm in this for the LONG haul, day after day, and can't afford to do anything other than low heart-rate, moderate, aerobic cycling. As we start to climb we'll see Mt. Jackson, and the Jackson 
Glacier (5th largest in the park) to the south, and Going to the Sun Mountain on our right to the north. Somewhere along the way, we'll pass the Weeping Wall, where a waterfall seeps out of the mountain-side and soaks the road.... if it's hot, we'll be glad for that! The climb to Logan pass isn't more than 6% for about 7 miles, and then we'll have an amazing 3000', 10 mile descent down the backside with killer views of Bird Woman Falls, which cascades almost 500' down the cliffs below Mt. Oberlin... check out the pic of it below. I normally love fast, twisty mountain descents but I guarantee I'm gonna be on the brakes, crusing, standing up, stretching the legs & back, resting the butt..... and soaking up the world-class views. It'll pass by way too quickly, and I'll be imprinting memories as 
best I can as I realize a dream come true! Once the road flattens again, we'll spin past Lake McDonald, another famous spot for photography that I've always wanted to visit. At this point we'll be pretty tired but exhilarated, and the rest of the riding to our hotel in Hungry Horse, Montana will be mostly moderate, rolling terrain over about 25 miles as we finish the 5th day of the northern part of the Tour de Rockies! Thanks for reading. 
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment