The day after visiting Waterton National Park and Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village, we headed south into Montana to visit Glacier National Park.
Glacier became a National Park in 1910, the country’s 10th. It covers one million acres and straddles the Continental Divide. Glacier became part of the International Peace Park in 1932. There are 50 glaciers in the park, 25 named and 25 unnamed. Jackson Glacier is the only one visible from the road.
We started with the Many Glacier area. The Many Glacier Hotel was built by the Great Northern Railroad and opened in 1914. Our guide told us you must have a reservation at hotel to drive your car up the gravel road because of limited parking. The hotel books a year in advance, and standard rooms run $247-312 while deluxe rooms are $500-700.
After a yummy bison quesadilla lunch in St. Mary, we had a a sweet surprise…four Red Buses pulled up to give us a tour along the Going-to-the-Sun Highway to Logan Pass. The Glacier Red Buses were built in the mid-1930s by Cleveland-based White Motor Company, Model 706.
Back in the day, the Red Buses had manual transmissions so the gears would grind when shifted so they became known as Red Jammers. Drivers are called Jammers. Until the 1990s, drivers were only male and women weren’t allowed to sit in the front passenger seat because they would “distract” the driver🙄
Ford Motor Company donated $6 million and their engineering expertise to refurbish the Glacier fleet of 33. The body is original but sits on an E-350 extended chassis.
Who knew the Red Jammers were a thing?!?
At the Pass we had time to hike about a mile and a half. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to St. Mary to board our bus back to our hotel.
Another day, another amazing adventure.
We were excited about heading to Banff the next day, but first a stop the Bar U Ranch, a Canadian National Historic Site.
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