Before we can begin our next road trip, I would recommend a good pair of sunglasses.  Today, we will be traveling to the sun!  Going-to-the-Sun Road is a scenic mountain road in Glacier National Park in  Montana.  It is the only road that traverses the park, crossing the Continental Divide at Logan Pass, 6,646 feet high.  This two-lane road is quite narrow and winding, especially west of Logan Pass.  With a vehicle length limit of 22 feet, no recreational vehicles or trailers in excess of this length are permitted beyond two larger parking areas, located dozens of miles below Logan Pass on both the west and east sides of the parkway.  Also, due to rock overhangs, vehicles over 10 feet in height may have difficulty driving west from Logan Pass to The Loop.  There are 2 tunnels, one on either side of Logan Pass, that motorists will drive through.  Bordered on one side by cliffs, and on the other side, unprotected by guardrails, is a drop-off hundreds of feet. This engineering marvel takes you through the park’s interior, winding around mountainsides, overlooking large glacial lakes and cedar forests in the lower valleys, all the way up to alpine tundra atop the pass.  Of course, you should have your camera ready, as we will be stopping for photos and hair—raising views.  The road is usually open from early June through mid October.  Snow makes the road impassable in the winter, with up to 80 feet of snow piling atop Logan Pass, making it one of the most difficult roads in North America to plow in the spring.  The road is both a National Historic Landmark and Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, spanning 50 miles across the width of the park and is named for Going-to-the-Sun Mountain, which dominates the eastbound view beyond Logan Pass.  It’s also notable as one of the first National Park Service projects specifically intended to accommodate the automobile-borne tourist. The road is worth traveling in either direction, as the view from one side of the road is much different than from the other, and considered one of the most scenic drives in the USA. 

Read the article in its entirety in the December 2015 

Bevil newsletter, which accompanies the cover.