Montana is Burning

My second favorite state is burning, and close to my beloved Glacier National Park.

Highway 2, the major route across the southern boundary of the park, was closed to traffic. It is now open, but the vehicles are being escorted across Marias Pass as the fire is only about a mile away. (Note: Marias Pass is the lowest elevation pass across the United States Rocky Mountains.)

The Number 1 Montana fire is burning near Gates of the Mountain Wilderness, an area immortalized in Lewis & Clark's diaries. This area was the site of the terrible Mann Gulch fire in 1949, in which 13 firefighters lost their lives. Norman Maclean's last book was Young Men and Fire, an accounting of this terrible tragedy. (Norman Maclean's most famous book is A River Runs Through It.) On our trip to Montana in 2003 Mom and I visited this beautiful area.

Going-to-the-Sun is Open.

Glacier National Park is a beautiful park situated in the Northwest corner of Montana, on the front face of the Rocky Mountains. The Going-to-the-Sun Road is the only road that crosses the park. It's a beautiful 52-mile alpine drive, hand-carved out of the side of the mountains during the Great Depression. Road crews start clearing it in April. It is finally open today.