Going to the Sun Highway, Montana

It was to be our last full day in Montana and we were lucky that the Going to the Sun highway was finally opened, July 13, 2011. It was the second latest opening of the road in its history due to heavy snow fall . Dom has already posted his photos HERE so I'll try not to duplicate too many.

It was decided that due to the expected crowds that we would approach Logan Pass from the East so we had to get an early start and head towards St Mary



we decided to leave the cabin by 8am and Richard, Jan, Patrick and Miles would follow in our support vehicle with the picnic lunch



Martha decided to be the Monkey today . I think we planned on being there in 2 hours but there were a lot of construction stops



Dom with Martha in the lead, with Bluekat directly in front . We eventually made it to Two Medicine Lake



It's a tranquille scene with a mountain backdrop . Here you are able to rent a canoe, kyack or take a boat tour



After we had finished snapping photos we move on and Dom has found another spot for a photo opp



I think because we are all bloggers and photographers we stop a lot for photos. It seems to be taking a long time to get to St Mary's



Here's Bluekat posing in front of the mountain



Eventually we enter Glacier NP again at St Marys and ride over to the Rising Sun picnic area to have our lunch . I forgot to snap a photo until it was nearly too late. There is hardly anything left



There are several construction delays and one way alternating traffic as we climb up the mountain and reach Logan Pass



another delay on the mountain gives us a chance to stop and snap more photos



I think we are all getting used to the gravel. The road is in bad shape we have been on gravel for miles, all the way up and part way down



If it weren't for these construction delays we would not be able to stop and enjoy the view, nor be able to converse and stretch our legs. It was a warm day around the mid 80's °F . We all started out with liners but they were quickly removed as we were all sweltering in the heat



We had some excitement with the appearance of two mountain goats. They were so tame that they came right up to us



The goat came very close to Martha



Dom was glad he remembered to bring along his spray bottle. He was getting a lot of enjoyment spraying Bluekat to keep her cool



In the following video I am trying to give you a feeling of what it was like to ride some portions of the Going to the Sun Highway. It was gravel from the bottom of the road where we started to climb and construction crews were everywhere. We had to stop several times as they alternated traffic up and down. Excuse the vibrations, the road was very rough in spots and I changed my GoProHD mounting location from my handlebars and mounted it on the windshield frame using RAM mounts which I did not test before the trip.