Between Avalance and The Loop
Bring your lunch with you when you tour the park. The only food concessions are near the entrances.
We stopped at the Avalanche Creek Picnic Area for lunch, and then continued our journey on the Going to the Sun Road. The elevation is getting higher as we continue, so we are seeing more waterfalls and cascades... 
The Loop
The area called "The Loop" is basically a big switchback on the road as it climbs up toward Logan Pass. These pictures were taken from the upper side of the Loop.
Waiting for construction
We knew there was road construction going on, so this delay was not a surprise. We got out and took pictures while we were waiting. There probably is not a place along this road that is not just beautiful.
Towards Logan Pass
We were not able to stop at Logan Pass - when we got there, the parking lot was full to overflowing. We learned that it usually fills by midmorning, and does not open up until midafternoon. But today won't be our only trip down this road, so we will just have to be sure to get here earlier next time. Meanwhile, here is one more picture taken from an overlook somewhere in the area.Jackson Glacier
Some scientists have estimated that the glaciers in the park will all be gone by 2020.
When you see snow in the mountains, it does not mean that you are looking at a glacier - it may be just a snowfield. A snowfield becomes a glacier when it sticks around for several years and accumulates enough mass that it starts moving. There are only 26 real glaciers remaining in the park. The best view of a glacier is Jackson Glacier, which is also one of the few that can be seen from the road. You can see it between the trees in these two shots.
West End of St. Mary Lake
Here are a couple shots from both sides of the road at a pullout near the west end of St. Mary Lake. It's kind of interesting how different they look.
Sunrift Gorge
We took quite a few pictures at this beautiful gorge, which actually went under the road at this point. Most of them didn't do it justice, but these two came out pretty good.
More Views of St. Mary Lake
Did I mention that this is just a beautiful park, with wonderful views almost everywhere you look?
Triple Divide Peak
There are actually two continental divides in this park. There is the one you are familiar with, that divides between the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. There is also a divide that separates the waters going south to the gulf from waters going north to Hudson Bay. They come together at Triple Divide Peak, where a drop of water at the top might go one of three directions. You can barely see it in this picture - it is the teeny tiny peak just left of the faraway peak you see near the middle of the picture. I think this is the closest you can get to it by car.Osprey Nest at St. Mary Visitor Center
These osprey kept trying to build their nest on a utility pole near the St. Mary Visitor Center, so the power company put up this platform for them to use instead. You can't see much in this picture, but the park service put up a webcam to observe them. They actually have several webcams - this one is about halfway down the list.Log Church at Babb
This picture is actually outside the park, at Babb, Montana. When Dale was in high school, his church youth group took a trip out here to help build a little log church at this town on the Blackfeet reservation. We drove by to see if it was still there, and sure enough, there it is. He said it looks like the roof was new, and it wasn't painted red back then, but other than that, it seemed pretty much intact.Two Medicine
Tip: If you go to Two Medicine from the North, don't take route 49. It's a little farther to drive through Browning, but you'll get there a lot faster.
After we drove through Babb, we went south along the east side of the park toward Two Medicine, which is one of the areas that you can only get to from outside the park. The road between Babb and the Two Medicine entrance is pretty narrow and winding, and it took us a lot longer to get there than we expected. We thought about skipping this one, since it had already been a pretty long day. But in the end, we decided to go ahead, because we did NOT want to do that road again. You can tell we were tired, because we took a lot fewer pictures in this area, but it was still beautiful.
The waterfall is named for the warrior Running Eagle, or Pitamakin, who was a woman. That is extremely unusual, and I found myself wondering how she was accepted and regarded by the other warriors. The plaque told the story of how she became a warrior, but not much about her life afterwards or what struggles she faced. Did they just accept her, since her mission was given to her by the gods? Or did she have to face the kind of struggles you might imagine from a male-dominated culture?
Back to Camp
We drove back along Route 2, which goes around the outside of the park, ending an extremely long, but satisfying day. We took one more picture at the Goat Lick Overlook, a spot where the road cuts across a corner of the park. We didn't see any goats, but we did catch a train in the gap beyond.
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