The Red Bus Tour

June 23

Today I did something I've wanted to do since I first went to Glacier National Park. Take a "Red Bus" tour. These buses were first introduced to Glacier Park in 1936. They were manufactured by White, and are called touring buses. And these are the original buses built in 1936, and were updated by Ford with new motors and systems around 2000. The cost PER BUS was $250,000. Yes, you read that correctly. And there are 34 buses running today. The basic structure of the bus is still in tact -- the body is actually a wooden box on the metal frame. It has a canvas roof which folds back so it becomes an open air touring bus.

And today, I got to be the driver's assistant to fold back the top. I'm now famous with all the people on my bus, as they all took my picture. In years to come, I'm sure they will wonder why they did that. Best of all, I was the last one to walk out to get on the bus, so I got to ride "shotgun" in the front. It was about 55 degrees when we folded back the top, so I'm extremely glad I was in front with the heater. The people behind me were really freezing their butts off. When I looked back in the mirror, all the hoods on their coats were up, and they had pulled out the blankets that the bus carries.

The biggest reason I wanted to take the tour was so I could ride across the "Road to the Sun" in the bus and get the fun facts you can't findon the Internet from the bus driver. DIDN'T HAPPEN. The Road to the Sun is still not open (and I've learned that it normally doesn't open until July 1). Our driver, Bob Smith (he was great) said he walked from where the road is closed to Logan Pass (which is where everyone wants to go) and he said the road was completely dry, no snow, and he didn't know why the road was closed. Because of the big avalance (snow, rocks, trees fell 4,000 ft, and did damage to sections of the road), it was probably for safety reasons.

So our full day tour was driving around the bottom of Glacier Park to the East Glacier Lodge where everyone had lunch. I've made this drive 4 times already on this trip, so nothing new there. We did make a stop a "Goat Lick", which is an area where mountain goats come to lick the Lichen (I think) off the rocks. While the park likes to keep things natural, at times they have to help the animals. The goats would cross the road (where the speed limit is 70 mph) and get hit. So the park put up a few fences to direct the goats through a tunnel they built and into the lick area. That way people aren't running them over. Today there is a little herd of mom goats and baby goats. They are quite a ways away, but it is fun to see the little goats bouncing over the rocks. (In the picture, there is a little baby goat lying on the rocks -- so cute).

BUT.....the people were fun. We even had a couple from Tacoa, GA (near Athens), and they knew Ellijay, of course. Met some nice people from Memphis, and as with most groups, we just had fun talking, joking with our driver Bob, etc. After lunch we did head back to West Glacier and went up the Road to the Sun as far as it was open, which is what they call "Big Bend". This took us on the famous part of the road -- the part that is very narrow, and if you look down the edge of the outside part of the road, you see it is over 3,000 ft down. If you have a problem with heights, you don't want to look.

But we did see some of the famous spots -- Bird Woman Falls (one of the 10 perfect views from the travel magazine), and the Weeping Wall (one of the most famous attractions on the road). In the spring, the water runs down from the high elevations, and there is a fairly long wall of rock. The water just comes pouring out of the rock all along the road. And in fact, people headed back down the road to the West side of Glacier routinely have their cars hit with all this water. Now mind you.....I'm in an open air bus and I'm sitting on the side where the water is going to pour in. And I told Bob the driver that I saw how he was moving the bus even closer to the wall. Sure enough, many folks on the bus were entertained by the sight of some of us getting wet. (Weeping Wall picture)

The mountains were just beautiful. Most of the snow is gone, but 2 nights before there had been rain at the lower elevations and a light snow cover on the mountain tops. So with this fresh dusting, the mountains were just beautiful -- blue sky, fluffy clouds, light snow.

One interesting item was the road and wall construction. This year the avalanche took out some of the road, but there is also a 10 year project to replace the "not very large" wall that keeps the vehicles from plummeting down the mountain. Here is a picture of a crane lowering a guy in a yellow box. What you can't tell from the picture is that if that cable broke, that man and the box will fall probably 3,600 ft. Scary stuff working on this road.

So it was a fantastic day. And I think I have found my job for next summer -- I'm going to apply to be a driver for these tours. Bob told me how to apply (the jobs are through Glacier Park, Inc.), and he said I needed to get my CDL (not sure what that is, but must have something to do with my drivers license). I already know mmore about the park than Bob did, from reading and listening to other guides. So with a little study, I'll be a paragon of knowledge for the park visitors.

And I did note that the driver gets some very nice tips from his passengers, so I would guess the drivers make much more than someone who works at the registration desk or the gift shops. So I'm going to check this out.

I don't think I mentioned on the day I went to Many Glacier, I met the ranger who was in the entrance booth. I gave her my drivers licence and my park pass, and she asked me to turn off my truck. So I'm now wondering what is wrong. Then she told me she was from Ellijay, GA -- she and her husband come out and work in the park. It is indeed a small world. And several days before that at Two Medicine, the ranger in the booth was from Cleveland, TN and of course, he knew about Ellijay. The ranger from Ellijay said I should go to www.usajobs.gov and I could see about applying to be a ranger in the park.

So now I have two places to look for a summer job -- who knows. Maybe next year I'll get paid for spending 3 months in Montana. Wouldn't that be nice!!