Bird Woman Falls

When we had seen as much as we could and curiosity of the rest of the park got the better of us, we returned (reluctantly) to the truck and continued the Going- to-the-Sun-Road.
In the mountains, the road goes where it can, and a road that a normal vehicle could travel was never intended to go through there. The Going-to-the-Sun Road could very easily become the Going-to-Meet-the-Maker Road if you were (and I was) more interested in looking than driving. A ninety degree turn in the road was a relief. There are at least half a dozen 180 degree turns and traffic was an obstacle coarse with the pull offs. Imagine driving your car on your favorite roller coaster track, now put in traffic.
The Weeping Wall, Triple Arches, and of course Bird Woman Falls were spectacular scenes placed in a spectacular scene. Bird Woman Falls is a 492 foot water fall that pours out of the bowl at the top of Mount Cannon. Streams and water falls are so prevalent that you could get whiplash trying to see them all, and they are all worth it. But we made it (in one piece) to the other side and got dinner while waiting for the late afternoon sun.
Just past the Apgar West Entrance, we found the town (?) of West Glacier. They had a family restaurant and a small bar. We opted for the bar.
Dave and I got food and decided to have a beer to celebrate a successful drive and a safe arrival. I’m not much of a drinker, but once in a while a beer hits the spot, this beer obliterated the spot. They had the usual suspects, and a few local brews, so we went local. Moose Drool was the name of the blackish sludge that was placed in a glass, and while I have never actually tasted the drool of a moose, I can believe that the person who named this had. Perhaps if you like dark beer, it wouldn’t be that bad, but for someone whose idea of a dark beer is Killian’s Red, it was everything I could do not to shudder after each drink. I was ever so grateful to get out of there and finally shudder.
The sun was getting low in the sky when we left and we had had the fore thought to get a campsite at Rising Sun Campground on the east side of the park before we went exploring. Always get a campsite early in the parks, they don’t take reservations and you don’t want to be looking after dark. We timed our slow ascent perfectly (don’t worry about drinking and driving, I couldn’t have drank that fast enough to get drunk), and the sun was just above the western peaks as we walked back into Logan Pass.
The rays of light streaming through the jagged peaks turned the valleys black and the peaks to gold. Everyone should see the sunset that way. As dark came, the wind picked up and the cool day turned frigid. Dave was on the overlook platform with his goatee blowing out behind him on either side like pigtails. We were glad to get back to the truck and turn the heater on, frost bite in July, I love it.
It was full dark (at least on the east side of the park) by the time we got to our campsite and since our day started at three that morning in North Dakota, we were ready to climb in our sleeping bags and sleep. Dave and I are not sit around the campfire guys. We never had a campfire on the entire trip, the closest we came was Dave boiling eggs with his little backpacker stove. We never were in a site long enough to build a fire when we weren’t asleep. Travel fast and light. Sunrise came early and we already knew where we wanted to be when the sun came up.