Monday, June 24, 2013

Day 47 - Glacier to Yellowstone

Phew. Long day of driving today. I left Many Glacier Hotel right on time at 9 AM started the drive with retracing Going-to-the-Sun Road. I don't think that was ultimately the best decision. It was rainy and foggy and I didn't get to see much and it added about an hour and half to 2 hours to the drive. Besides that, the drive wasn't all that eventful. 10 hours in total. I made it to the Old Faithful Inn right around 7 PM. I stayed here once as a kid with my parents. I don't remember the details of the room that we stayed in back then, but the current room has a sink in it, but the bathroom is down the hall. Kinda like being back in college.

The Inn is beautiful. I'll try to get at least one picture uploaded here tomorrow. If you're not familiar with it, it's totally worth a visit. Now, this bit is totally my memory of the history that I heard like 20 years ago, but here's what I think I know. The inn was built like a century ago, using trees from the local area. The interior is all exposed, curved wood. It's breathtaking. There is a giant stone fireplace that extends all the way up the 5 story lobby. When the fires came through in 1989 (I think that's the right year), one of them came really close to the Inn and they thought they wouldn't be able to save it. Luckily, the winds changed and the fire avoided it. Had it burnt down, there's no way with the current forest policies that they'd ever be able to rebuild it.

So, get out here and see the Inn before another fire comes and sweeps it away for good - who knows when that will be.

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