Our summer road trip brings us a little closer to home, to Glacier National Park. It’s a place that many consider holy ground, or a thin place; it’s one of those places where it seems that we somehow get a little closer to God. Majestic is just one of the words of praise that come to mind for Glacier, making its nickname, Crown of the Continent, well deserved.
In Glacier National Park, the only flat surface seems to be the waters of its cold, clear lakes. Glacier epitomizes the Rocky Mountains of the American imagination: rugged peaks, narrow valleys, rushing streams, teeming wildlife, and forests broken by green meadows and seasonal wildflowers. Slicing through the park’s heart, the historic Going-to-the-Sun Road twists and turns on a narrow cliff climb. Tunnels, arches, and bridges lead sightseers over heights where seemingly no road could go.
The Continental Divide splits Glacier into west and east sides. The park’s west entrance resembles the rainy Pacific climate. The eastern side is dryer, more like the high plains that stretch a thousand miles southeast.
Glacier is a place of change. When you look at the peaks and valleys of Glacier, you see geological breaking news. Many of the valleys were formed in the last great ice age, when glaciers muscled their way down mountains and etched U-shaped gorges between peaks, razor-like ridges when a pair of glaciers shaved a mountain, or sometimes a horn, when three glaciers worked a mountain into a mesmerizing spire.
But sadly, one of the more obvious changes in the park is that the glaciers are disappearing. In the 1850s surveyors counted 80 glaciers in the one million acres that eventually became part of the park. Today, there are 26 glaciers. And all 26 remaining glaciers are continuing to shrink.
Some have suggested that if this melting continues at its projected rate, Glacier’s glaciers will vanish by 2030, dramatically altering Glacier’s ecosystem. For example, streams will dry up in the summer, leaving the parks natural inhabitants without the water they need. More recent studies, as scientists learn more about glacial melting patterns, have suggested that perhaps there is more time.
But even still, many wonder what Glacier will look like in another twenty years.
There are consequences to the choices we make, whether we want to acknowledge them or not. So often we think our choices affect only us, but in reality, our choices affect others too.
What unexpected consequence has brought you the most harm? Which brought you the most good? Is there a decision to be made in your life that could make a bigger impact than you expect?
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