Park still splendid in many ways

It’s been a challenging spring and early summer for the local tourism industry. Nagging rain through June, snow on the slopes long after it should have melted and flooding in North Dakota that has shut down a portion of Amtrak’s Empire Builder route all have affected the number of visitors finding their way here.

Whether we take a glass-half-full approach or a more negative glass-half-empty view is up to us. And frankly, all of us should be putting a positive spin on the expansive variety of things there are to do and see here.

As a Glacier National Park interpretive specialist so aptly pointed out this week, Going-to-the Sun Road “is not the complete Glacier National Park experience.”

The famous highway isn’t open yet as a through-road across the Continental Divide due to last winter’s extraordinary snowfall, but that shouldn’t stop visitors from taking in all of the myriad amenities Glacier has to offer, from horseback riding to touring the park’s lakes in a vintage wooden boat. Nature trails are open, ranger-guided hikes are in full swing and the wonderful Red Buses are out and about.

The lingering snow has created some wonderful opportunities for viewing wildlife and waterfalls. Wolves have been regularly spotted on Camas Road, and bears are wandering at lower elevations, too, often along the roadsides. More moisture has given the wildflowers a boost, and the beargrass is peaking in West Glacier right now.

Sun Road’s still not open all the way? So what. There’s still the better part of a million acres waiting for us to explore.

For months, we’ve all been watching river levels, snow depths and rain forecasts and worrying about flooding.

Now, it appears the danger of major flooding may have passed and the Flathead Valley may escape widespread water problems.

To be sure, many people still suffered from high water. Residents along Ashley Creek, the Stillwater and Whitefish rivers and Echo Lake, to name a few, have had to endure a variety of water woes that still aren’t resolved.

However, the big river events that were possible never materialized, although continued groundwater flooding is likely.

But mercifully the prospects for a repeat of 1964’s catastrophic flooding have greatly diminished.

For that we can thank, perversely, the crummy spring we just endured. All those cold, rainy days managed to stave off flooding and the few breaks of warmer weather brought down the snowpack at a sporadic instead of gushing pace.

Not all the risk is gone — heavy, warm rains could still trigger flooding of the remaining snowpack.

But a flood-free future still is in the cards.