Columbia Falls, Montana

Today is Sunday and the park is still allowing free entry, which is making for a very crowded park. So we decided to make this a "Going to Town" day and get some errands done. Tomorrow things should be back to normal.

We're still surprised at how many campsites are available every day. By afternoon they fill up, but every morning quite a few people leave and there's always spots to be had. We're happy where we are, but later in the week, we expect to head to the east side of the park and stay a few nights also.

Scott, to answer your question, there are no hookups in Apgar campground, but there is water you can fill your tank with. We filled ours to overflowing before we came in and I have to say, towing the trailer, even just 10 miles, with a full load of water makes a big difference in the feel of the truck.

We saw a sign earlier that said at the rate of decline now present, all glaciers in the park will be gone by 2025. So sad. We haven't seen any to brag about yet, just small ones in crevices of the mountains. Nothing like what we saw in Alaska.

Still, the beauty here is breathtaking. And the triple divide is really cool! Here's a little tidbit I found-

In Glacier National Park, there is actually a triple divide because waters potentially can flow into three drainages. The creeks and streams in the southeast section of the park feed into the Birch and Marias Rivers, then the Missouri and the Mississippi and empty into the Gulf of Mexico. The water in the northeast section feeds into the St. Mary River that joins the Saskatchewan River Basin. From there, some of the water flows into Lake Winnipeg, then into the Nelson River which drains into the Hudson Bay. All water west of the divide feeds into the Flathead River, which then flows through Flathead Lake and empties into the Clark Fork which joins the Columbia River to the Pacific. The many streams of Waterton-Glacier make important contributions to the great rivers of the continent. There are few other areas of similar size that generate a volume of water equal to that flowing out of the parks.

Glacier's Triple Divide Peak (8020 ft/2446 m) is a rather rare hydrologic feature. From the summit, water flows to the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Hudson Bay. The peak can be viewed from the Going-to-the-Sun Road in the Two Dog Flats area, on the east side of the park. Other triple divides (hydrological apexes) are found in Jasper National Park and in Siberia.

I"ll have pictures of that peak for you later in the blog. Unless you want the details of our very interesting laundry day, I've nothing else to contribute right now. Reception is still very spotty and even though I'm showing 4G sometimes, connections are extremely slow.

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