In a nutshell, for those of you not familiar with Glacier National Park: it is bisected by the east-west Going to the Sun Road, a National Historic Landmark and marvel of engineering.  The apex of the Going to the Sun Road is Logan Pass, 6,646 feet in elevation.  Glacier’s low elevation is one of the many reasons its peaks are fun, and relatively easy, to bag.

For many reasons not worth exploring in this short blog post, when the Going to the Sun Road ain’t open, the businesses on the east side of Glacier National Park, where we live, don’t thrive.  Even though the East Side is clearly the better and more beautiful side of the park, according to a highly scientific study of Warehome residents and hangers-on that I took tonight.  So we East Siders, particularly those of us whose livelihoods are tied to that 60-90 day window of time that the Going to the Sun Road is open, eagerly await the opening of the Road each year.  It takes a surveying crew going ahead of a fleet of dozers and cats to get the Road open each spring.

This spring has been an especially long wait, due to the insane amounts of snow we received this winter.

But yesterday, at long, long last, the Going to the Sun Road opened – the latest opening in its history.  And this year, as in every year, we piled into the truck to be among the first ones to frolic on Logan Pass in 2011.

Maggie touched snow for the first time.

Funny how having a baby makes you take pictures you would have made fun of, before.

Yup, there’s a lot of snow up there.

Looks like it might be awhile before some of our favorite hikes – Floral Park, Reynolds, and the Highline, below – open up!

Guess we’ll have to be good gawkers ’til then.

2011.  Glacier County Honey Co.  All Rights Reserved.