Jammin' on the Jammer

Location: West Side Glacier National Park, Montana

Ned here again. Debi wants me to write the blog tonight because our main event today was the Red Bus Tour up to the summit and back. She took this tour with her cousin Lisa last year, so she thought I should give my impressions since I was a newbie. I know that my parents and two sisters camped in Glacier sometime in the mid-60's since I have a strong memory of us getting completely drenched in our tent and my dad frantically trenching around the tent perimeter to save us from disaster. My sister Polly reminded me of us, on that same trip, propping both of our canoes up over the campfire so that we could get dinner cooked without having the fire doused out by the torrential rain. On a subsequent trip, just my dad and I visited Glacier when I was about 14. My strongest memory of that trip is a moonlight canoe ride we made on Lake MacDonald and couldn't see our way back to our landing point. We were proud that we used our noses to navigate back, since we had launched next to the horse stables.
Today's bus tour (historically called Jammers for their double clutch gear grinding) was great for several reasons. First and foremost was that we were blessed with wonderful sunny weather. Second, the 1930's vintage buses are extremely cool. Third, our driver, Decker, was very enthusiastic, and really funny. Oh yes, and then there's the fact that when you're up on the higher parts of the road, basically any direction you look is just amazing scenery. We saw lots of beautiful waterfalls and cascades, lush green vistas of forest, and majestic glacial peaks and valleys against brilliant blue sky and billowing clouds . We did well on our wildlife viewing also. Not only was there a very photogenic mountain goat along the way, but Debi spotted a wolverine. Decker, our driver, was extremely excited with this since he had never seen one, and his boss, who has worked in the park for 16 years has only seen one once. On our return trip from the summit, everyone in the bus got to see the wolverine quickly bounding up to the same snowy ridge where Debi had first spotted him.
After the tour we got some lunch and ice cream at Apgar Village, and just enjoyed the sunshine near the lake and back at our campsite. Tonight we attended an evening ranger's talk about biodiversity in the park, and then headed back to the van for a good nights sleep.