Going to the Sun Road

I'm out the door at 5:45am and headed to Glacier with smoke from area fires clearly visible during my 50 minute drive. I'm kinda excited about the opportunity to ride this iconic road but also nervous.  It's not convenient to do the ride at this time of the year.  The best time is just after they clear the road of snow, some time in June when they open it for cyclists only, for a couple of weeks.  After that, the Going to the Sun Road is closed to cyclists from 11am to 4pm, I have to have a vehicle pass to enter the park and then a park pass as an additional piece.  The.....

....vehicle pass was given to me by a friend of Amy's but when they scanned it, it was in the friend's name.  The ranger told me technically I should not be allowed in but he waved me through.  Then, I had forgotten my national park pass but had Amy's. A 2nd ranger looked at the pass and asked me to sign the back while holding my driver's license so I had to sign my name rather than Amy's.  With that, I got in and began a 9 mile drive over dirt road.  Not sure if they will pave this section but it really needs it.

I was looking for the Avalanche parking area, which is beyond the dirt section but it was full so back tracked to McDonald's Falls which had a small but empty pull in.  I saw no signs indicating a parking time limit so hopped out and got all my things together.  Meantime. a large van from Backroads was unloading 24 E bikes!!!  I got going asap at 7:30am.

The first roughly 9 miles was tree lined and rolling.  I saw a cyclist on the left side of the road, taking pics so thought I should stop and take one too.  He didn't hear me coming but jumped when I put my foot on the pavement.  He turned and said he thought it might be a bear. With a population of about 1000 bears within the park, it's not uncommon to encounter one.

After about 7 miles, the climb began.  For the next 10.5 miles it would be all climbing, no flat or descent breaks, averaging 5.5%. Once I emerged from the forest....

....the views are simply incredible. Especially this one with the purple flowers in the foreground.  Surprisingly, the traffic was light and plenty of straight sections for them to pass so I never had to stop and allow traffic to pass as you are required to do.

The first 15 miles of the ride went by surprisingly quickly but dang, from 15 to 16.5, that time dragged as the road steepened to an average of 6.5%. I finally stopped not to take a pic but just to take a break.  But then I rounded a turn and saw the "1/4 mile to Logan Pass" sign and soon thereafter....

....celebrated.  Several cyclists were taking turns posing and taking pics.  A guy asked me if this climb was harder than Mount Lemmon and no, only because Lemmon is 10 miles longer but no 10.5 mile section of Lemmon is more difficult than this 10.5 mile climb.

Other cyclists arrived but surprisingly, none of the E bikers had yet arrived.  In addition to them, Trek Travel had a bunch and REI contributed too.  There were around 50 other cyclists sharing the road on this day which was also a surprise.  I guess Tuesdays are the day to go.

I had arrived at the pass before 10am but since I had to be off the road by 11am, I began the descent soon after arriving.

The Red Bus Tours are popular, each bus holding up to 16 people.  They stop several times and the driver....

...describes points of interest to the crowd.  

Hardly any vehicles shared the descent with me so I could stay in the center of the lane, enjoying the satisfaction of my accomplishment and the views.  One of those good to be alive moments.  I stopped at the tunnel and took the above image through one of the arches.

Arriving back at the SUV, I changed clothes and checked out McDonald's Falls.  Finished with 35 miles and 3100' of climbing.  I may do this again before we return to AZ.