2008 GTTSR: Going To The Sun Rally, Day Three: The Glacier Park Loop.

Above is Gary Herzberg, your author, and our two E-types at the east gate of Glacier National Park.

Last night a rather large group of us committed to driving the Going To The Sun Road together in the morning. The plan was to meet in the hotel lobby at 08:00 and leave a group. Of course very few plans survive once the enemy is met so to speak. Some folks left early, and only 4 cars managed to leave right at eight. I imagine a bunch more left later. Of our group of four, one dropped out early, right after we gassed up, with a mechanical problem with promises to catch up later. That left us with just three cars: Mark & I in the 65E, Ron Rader in his E-type FHC, and a Renault Alpine(!) driven by Donald and Janice Polak.

Here is a map of our day’s driving:

View Larger Map

It was cold. Very cold! I drove since I knew that Mark would want to shoot photos and soak in the scenery, which is truly amazing. Did I mention it was cold? Brrrrr. The route stayed in the shade until we were well up on the GTTSR’s headwall. Its rays were tantalizingly close along most of the drive, but the warmth did not make it down to where we drove. Those who know me understand that I actually prefer cold weather to warm, and would gladly choose to spend my days at Ice Station Zebra or McMurdo over Miami Beach, but I have to admit wishing I’d blanked off the radiator this morning. Every time we stopped I put my gloves onto the bonnet louvers above the exhaust manifold to get some warmth for the next segment. No radio, no GPS, no AC, but I’ve got a glove warmer!

Above: The Jaguar’s Built-In Glovewarmer.
Photo by Mark Collien.

We left Whitefish and found our way east on US 2 to West Glacier and the entrance to the park.

Photo by Mark Collien.

Photo by Mark Collien.
Above: As we waited in the queue to pay our entrance fee there was an old Datsun 240z ahead of us.

Fee paid, we went on in, and drove through the cool shade for a long ways until finally we broke out into the sun as we ascended the rally’s eponymous road.

Photo by Mark Collien.

Not long afterwards, just after the road makes the hard turn after the tunnels going up the headwall, we ran into a construction delay. My guess is that this is the reason the official rally route did not go through the park this year. The Going To The Sun Road is undergoing a repaving project and the delays were fairly long. We really didn’t mind however as it gave us a chance to wander around and soak in the views. (Around 2:28 in the JagCam movie)

Photo by Mark Collien.

A little further on we came to a wide pull-out and encountered another Rally car, a Ferrari Daytona being driven by W. Malcom Barksdale and Donald Shaw. I pulled over and the others followed suit. Another round of chatting, picture taking, and wandering around ensued. A Park Service tour bus pulled up, one of their vintage White/Fords so I had to go over and admire it too.

They are national treasures, with deep history and a connection to the park. (2:56 to 3:04 in the JagCam movie)

Above: The Daytona pulls out.

Above: Our little group… right before it split up.

Photo by Mark Collien.

Above: Logan Pass is the low point between the peaks. The Going To The Sun Road hugs the headwall along the left side of the photo all the way up.
Photo by Mark Collien.

We stopped several more times on the way up. The other cars left us behind, eager to reach the pass. I preferred to linger on this road and see the sights. I know that some folks get acrophobia while driving this road I actually enjoy it. The slope looks vertical but in reality is far from it. There are only a few places along the road that have any big exposure and even those are mild compared to what I’ve experienced in my climbing days. On one of the stops we were treated to a large male Bighorn Sheep grazing on the heather. Cars streamed by along the road and never knew it was there. Gotta stop and look around folks!

Above: A roadside pause on the way up.
Photo by Mark Collien.

We finaly made it to the top of the road at Logan Pass (3:45 in the JagCam movie) and Mark went off to shoot photos while I just basked in the sun and chatted with folks in the parking lot. As I was standing there Gary Herzberg and his son arrived, having fixed their brake issue and made their promise to catch up to us. When Mark came back we decided to carry on with Gary & son down the other side and around via the loop to US 2. (4:30 in the JagCam movie.)

Above: Gary’s FHC finds us at the top of the pass. Note the White/Ford tour bus, and fresh snow on the peak behind us.

Above: Another view, of all four of our little group in the parking lot of the Logan Pass visitor’s center.

Above: Gary Herzberg & Mark Collien hanging out at high altitude.

Above: No satnav for me!
Photo by Mark Collien.

Above: A construction delay on the way down the east side of Logan Pass. (4:40 in the JagCam movie.)
Photo by Mark Collien.

Gary, his son Chris, and Mark & I sped off eastwards towards St. Marys Lake, another visual highlight of Glacier Park. We stopped at one overlook for quite a while. We shot photos as our cars drew a crowd. I did my usual “go ahead and have a seat” routine with people and had quite a few takers. (5:08-5:11 in the JagCam movie.)

Above: I’m standing in a spot to ruin everyone else’s photo, while I take a photo of photographers trying to shoot photographs. (say that 3 times fast!) This was right before the crowds arrived.

Above: A random guy sits in my car for his wife to take his picture while I try to capture the scene.

I sat on the rock parapet for a while soaking in the lines, shape and color of Gary’s early Series 1 fixed head coupe. What I had always assumed was black turned out to be Opalescent Dark Blue. What a great color! I figured this would be a great spot for a great shot for the XKEdata.com calendar, so I waited for a parting of the crowd and grabbed this shot:

Above: Beauty shot of the Herzberg FHC.

I hope Roger likes it for his yearly effort… we’ll see. From here we drove east and there was a particular vantage point that I wanted Mark to see, as it is an iconic Glacier Park photograph view… almost overdone to the point of being cliche. Somehow I managed to drive right by it though, so Mark, now you know what you missed! 😉

Instead we stopped along a side road near the Park’s east entrance and shot some other photos, including the shot in the banner at the top of this page. (5:46ish on the JagCam movie.) Here is one without the two ugly guys messing it up:

The change of geography and environment from wet/west to dry/east is just as dramatic here in the northern Rockies as it is in the Cascades in Washington. Amazing.

We zoomed off south along US 89, an amazing road in its own right. This area had been ravaged by a forest fire mere days before my father & I drove it on the 2006 GTTSR. It had recovered some, but the evidence of the fire was still all around. This year, since we had to return to Whitefish via US 2 we chose to take Montana Highway 49 which is marked on the map as ‘Closed in Winter’… those are usually fun roads. Indeed it was a fun road.

It was so much fun that I kept leaving Gary & Chris behind! So I pulled over, let them catch up, and motioned them to lead the way. (6:35 in the JagCam movie.) Now Mark could get good photos!

Photos by Mark Collien.

What a great drive. Amazing views, and lots of wonderfully twisty road.

After all that steering wheel tugging we were hungry. At a quick roadside meeting we decided to grab a lunch at the old Great Northern Railway Glacier Park Lodge. The lunch was just “OK”, but the facility was amazing. The columns and joists of the building are HUGE Douglas Fir trunks (I am way too familiar with that particular species of tree!) Very impressive. I wandered around a bit while we waited for our meal to arrive and soaked in the history of the place. An American landmark from the height of the rail era in the early- to mid-20th century. If you are in the area make a point to visit this structure. (6:57 to 7:20 in the JagCam movie. I sped that sequence up to make the time pass more swiftly, and the effect of the clouds going faster was really cool… however the YouTube conversion, or perhaps my render just filled this part with compression artifacts. Yuck. Oh well.)

Photo by Mark Collien.

After lunch we traded navigators. Mark rode in Gary’s car, and Christopher Herzberg rode with me. This allowed Mark to get some photos from a different perspective:

Photos by Mark Collien.

The views from US 2 were very nice, though not in the same league as the Going To The Sun Road through the Park. The difference was like viewing a baseball game from the left field bleachers as opposed to along the third base line above the dugout. Amazing what one valley over will do for perspective.

To be ready for the morning’s resumption of the main Rally we gassed up and traded our navigators back (9:41 to 9:49 in the JagCam movie.)

We arrived back at the Lodge, to find Don Kaitz’ Corvette still undergoing its parking lot mini-restoration:

Photo by Mark Collien.

I keep telling him that he’s gotta get himself one of these nice reliable Jaguars for rallying! 😉

We wandered up to the room and I spent a few hours it seemed either wrestling with my computer while editing the JagCam footage, or napping while long video imports and renders took place. Eventually we gave up and went into town for some pizza and beer. I ordered one of my famous “triple death” specials (Pepperoni, Jalapenos, & Garlic) which I ended up regretting later as some killer heartburn kept me up all night(!) Man those Jalapenos were HOT! This gave me the opportunity to get the JagCam movie finished and uploaded to YouTube though, so my pain is your pleasure. Enjoy:

Don’t try to figure out the lyrics to this music, unless you know Icelandic of course.

Tomorrow we drive the ‘Better than sex highway’! Stay tuned.