Roads and Trails in Glacier National Park

ROADS AND TRAILS IN GLACIER NATIONAL PARK Ira S. Stinson

Roads in the Park - Glacier Park is a wilderness park. From this point of view it would be desirable to keep all roads and trails out. However, if such were the case it would be inaccessible to the greater part of the public. A compromise has been made whereby a minimum of roads and trails are built to make accessible the wonders and beauties of this area.

There are only sixty-eight miles of first class highway within the boundaries of the park. Considerable pressure is brought to bear from time to time to increase the mileage of roads and trails but the National Park Service has resisted such increase as a means of preserving this great wilderness area in its most natural state. Not only building of first class highways necessitates permanent scarring of the landscape, but also other undesirable features are consequent to road construction.

1. The opening of vast lanes of highways and boulevard broad trails creates unnatural canyons through which winds howl, and exposes trees which, by their own nature cannot readily readjust themselves to sudden change. The trees along the clearing die as a consequence. The ground cover dries because of wind and exposure. These dead trees are a ready host for numerous destructive insects such as bark beetles. They propagate to great numbers and later spread to living trees. They are also splendid tinder for starting a forest fire. Such dead and dying trees are visible along highways and clearings to the observant everywhere in the park.

2. Trees along highways are damaged during the construction by rocks thrown by dynamiting, by trampling, by machinery, or by fills which choke out the roots.

3. The noise associated with a modern highway, the attendant activity, the smoke and stench of exhaust fumes, are all repellent to many kinds of wild life.

The Park Service experiences much difficulty maintaining highways in first class condition in the park. Many of the cuts of the highway are made:

1. Through material deposited as glacial moraine which is unconsolidated, heterogenous, of all sizes from large, rounded boulders down to powdered sand and clay. Cuts in moraines are therefore especially unstable and slides may occur for years after the cuts have been made. An example of loose moraine material is to be found along the road from Babb to Many Glacier. In this stretch, the instability is aggravated by beaver ponds on the Swiftcurrent Ridge which tend to keep them wet for a long time into summer.

2. Through deposits of Tertiary rocks as along the shore of Lake McDonald. As Tertiary rocks are geologically young, consequently have not yet been cemented into a firm mass, the deposits are soft and very slippery when wet. For many years until they become anchored by the roots of plants such as grass, clover, shrubs, and trees, fresh cuts that lie in or adjacent to Tertiary deposits continually give the park engineers much trouble.

3. At the bases of the cliffs or steep slopes. Many cubic yards of slide material comes down upon Going-to-the-Sun Highway through the winter months; this must all be cleared off before summer operations can be resumed.

From a standpoint of tourist interest it should be pointed out that the Many Glacier-Babb road, from Sherburne Dam to a point two miles west of Babb, is literally moving down stream all of the time. Some sections of this road are moving faster than others. Some sections which were originally built as tangents are now half circular. Other sections are moving out at the rate of five to fifteen feet per year. This requires the use of a one-yard gasoline shovel each spring or fall to rebuild or realign the sections which are slipping out most rapidly. At one point just above the mouth of Boulder Creek, there is a rise of ten feet above an otherwise uniform grade line. This hump was cut down several times but each time it rose until it reached a certain height beyond which it did not seem to grow. It was then decided not to level it again as at that state, the forces of Nature seemingly are balanced.

In order that the Going-to-the-Sun Highway may be open for tourist travel by June 15, each year an average of more than 100,000 cubic yards of snow must be removed from the highway. This is done by means of a rotary snow plow, steam shovels, bulldozers, and dynamite. In the fall of the year, the edges of the road are marked by long poles which protrude over the tops of the deepest drifts. The rotary snowplow readily removes all loose snow on the highway, but wherever rocks from slides or huge trees are imbedded in the snow mass, or where the snow has accumulated to a depth of more than six feet, other means must be resorted to. The steam shovel, such as is ordinarily used in making cuts in road work, often suffices for this. More frequently the bulldozer is used, sometimes in conjunction with either of the foregoing machines. A bulldozer is merely a large steel blade set at an angle to the roadbed and propelled by a caterpillar tractor. In the simplest operations, a bulldozer acts merely as a plow which pushes the snow to one side of its path. Many times, however, especially in snowslides, the snow may be piled to a depth of thirty or forty feet upon the highway. In such cases, the bulldozer can be used merely to push snow forward from the greatest depth to the waiting Sno-Go, or rotary plow, which blows it far from the highway. If the snow is packed too solidly to be removed readily by any of these means, it is loosened by dynamiting. The first visitors over Logan Pass, on the fifteenth of June, generally must pass through snow canyons which here and there extend to several times the height of the car.

In addition to rock slides, snow slides, and ordinary snow banks, the highways must be kept clear of fallen trees, of washouts, of frost bucklings, and of other troubles. No permanent coating has been applied to park highways, so they are oiled each year anew. It costs the park approximately $50,000 a year to keep them in shape; this is exclusive of new construction. Besides the Going-to-the-Sun Highway, 54 miles from Belton to St. Mary, the Blackfeet Highway from Glacier Park to the Canadian border, 54 miles, the spur into Two Medicine, 7.8 miles, the spur to Many Glacier, 12 miles, the Chief Mountain Highway from Kennedy Creek to Canada, 14 miles, and 70 miles of secondary roads are maintained by park road crews.

The construction of a new highway in the park is a story by itself. Many difficulties must be surmounted; for example, when the Going-to-the-Sun Highway was constructed along the sides of cliffs, above the main switchbacks on the east and west side of the divide, men had to be lowered over the faces of the cliffs by ropes in order to set the initial stakes. In this work often a centerline distance of fifty to a hundred feet was a big day's work for a staking party. Next, men with boxes of dynamite carried on their shoulders descended vertical ladders 75 to 100 feet, and perching precariously on narrow ledges, set the initial charges of dynamite to make the start on the safe and comfortable highway which you travel over today. In constructing the Going-to-the-Sun Highway, sufficient maximum grade without curvature compensation was established. As an indication of what an effort it was to maintain this favorable grade, the fact can be cited that from Logan Pass to Logan Creek, a distance of 10.3 miles, the average grade is 5.6 percent. This is a very small working margin and indicates how closely they had to hold to the maximum gradient. When the highway is finally completed, as it is hoped it will be within the next three or four years, it will have been twenty years under construction and will have cost in the neighborhood of $4,000,000, or an average of $80,000 a mile. Naturally the miles along the floors of the valleys cost much less, making the cost of twenty miles along the Garden Wall and along other mountain walls, correspondingly much higher.

Trails in the Park - There are about 800 miles of trail suitable for tourist use which can take the park visitor to practically nearly every major scenic feature in the park. In addition to this, there are 400 miles of trails which have been constructed for park administration purposes only, such as for fire control and patrol purposes.

Glacier, because of its wild nature is essentially a trail's Park. Many of its trails originated as game trails which wound around obstacles and generally took the easiest rather than the most direct course. As a consequence, some trails have had to be relocated as more funds were made available which made possible heavier construction, or as greater crowds made better trails necessary. Formerly in making the trip from Many Glacier to Belly River valley, the route was followed which took one around the lower end of Appekunny Mountain, across Kennedy Creek valley, and over the colorful but arduous Red Gap. Between Appekunny Mountain and the Continental Divide, a rocky, precipitous wall shut out the possibility of any trail built by simple construction. A forest fire, which swept through Kennedy valley, increased the fatigue of the trail over Red Gap and made a long portion of it uninteresting. In 1929, it was planned to pierce the mountain wall above Ptarmigan Lake with a 183 foot tunnel, and to carry the trail down the sheer north face by means of a half tunnel. Thus, the distance has been shortened ten long miles of travel, the time, a full three hours of fatigue. It took three seasons of vigorous labor and $4,000 to accomplish this feat.

Trails have been planned for the safety and comfort of the tourist. Grades on the main trails have been limited to fifteen percent, and alignment has been planned so as to eliminate switchbacks and snowdrifts wherever possible. Particular attention has been given to locating the trails where the most magnificent country can be viewed, and where the impression is most lasting.

Behind this program of trail construction lies the vision of the engineer, the wisdom of the executive, and the perseverance and toil of the workman. Tedious reconnaissance surveys have been projected, forbidding obstacles have been surmounted, and almost impossible locations have been planned. Obstacles little dreamed of by the layman have fallen before the ingenuity of these men; vertical cliffs have been crossed by half-tunnels with rocks and crags overhanging; walls have been built along narrow ledges, twisting lake shores, and shifting talus slides; and even moving glaciers, offering their resistance to the inroads of man, have been conquered.

Visualize, if you can, engineers with clinometers for determining the grade and flagging for marking the route locating or aligning a difficult section of trail, or workmen hanging by ropes over sheer cliffs or standing on ledges of rock less than a foot wide to pioneer the first section of passable ground. In some sections rockmen have tugged on rope ladders anchored to vertical cliffs to bite their way into solid rock, soon to harbor a trail. Frequently in these descents the workmen have taken a sixty pound jackhammer or a fifty pound case of dynamite and have gone to work on ledges where a fall means a non-stop drop of 500 to 2,000 feet and certain terminus at the "Happy Hunting Grounds". Have you ever watched a worker bouncing around as he rides a chattering pneumatic drill? Can you imagine him doing the same while perched on a precarious ledge with a yawning abyss below?

Other feats are packing compressors and similar heavy equipment many miles into construction locations. This is done by mules trained to carry heavy loads in dangerous and narrow places. Building bridges over swift and icy streams, often many feet below the trail, is another problem which taxes the ingenuity of the engineer and skilled artisan who cannot call upon reinforced I-beams or suspension cables for construction aids.

Of the many feats of trail building of particular importance are those to be found near Gunsight Pass, Triple Divide, Ahern Pass, and Ptarmigan Wall. Compressors, jack-hammers, dynamite, and human skill have played a part in conquering these dangerous passes and making the park more accessible and comfortable for the tourist. Expense has been heavy, these by-paths of pleasure often costing from $2,500 to $3,000 per mile. This figure does not include upkeep, which each year matches a considerable portion of the original cost. Men and horses have given their best so that the trails might be satisfactory for even the most timid tourist.

The newly constructed trail over Gunsight Pass is another marvel of modern day science. Following the time-worn trail that was used by the Blackfeet and Kutenais for centuries on their hunting trips, this frequently traveled ribbon of wonder dodges snowbanks and overhanging cliffs to the crest where can be seen snow-clad glaciers clinging to the peaks, and separated from lake-studded valleys by reflecting waterfalls.

In the past years, trails in the park near principal tourist centers have been oiled. This has invoked criticism on the part of some well-meaning people who believe that an oiled trail is an abomination and not an integral part of a primitive picture. Most such critics were not visitors in the park before such palliative measures were taken and consequently do not appreciate the great good that results from so doing. Principally, the air remains dust-free and pure for horseback parties and huge parties afoot which formerly only progressed these paths enveloped in a choking cloud of dust that dimmed all possibility of appreciation of scenic beauty, floral wealth, faunal interest, and exuberant climate. In addition, the oiling has created further pleasures for the hiker and economy for the park budget, which more than offsets its expense. No longer do the shrubs and trees stand drably laden with dust along such trails. No longer is the purity of the faces of the wild flowers sullied with grime and dirt. Leaf, blade, and bloom appear bright as if after a cleansing rainstorm. Another advantage, oiling has given the trails a coating almost impervious to water, so that runoff after a summer shower is rapid and complete. Quagmires through which horses and hiker formerly had to wallow are drained quickly and thoroughly. Lastly, it has reduced erosion to insignificance.