In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin D Roosevelt lobbied Congress and received approval to setup a temporary agency entitled the Civilian Conservation Corp.  Its mission – apart from providing work, pay and rations to large number of unemployed men, was to conserve and develop natural resources across the country – a country suffering from severe environmental degradation in many parts.

The CCC turned out to be the most popular of the New Deal work relief programs – hard work but rewarding.  Participants were paid $30 per month, and were required to send back at least $25 of this to dependents.   There were few requirements: participants had to be healthy, unmarried men, between the ages of 18 and 25, and their families had to be on local relief rolls. They had to be between 5 feet and 6 feet 6 inches tall, weigh over 107 pounds, and they had to have at least six teeth.

Under the 9 year life of the program, America planted nearly 3 billion trees to reforest swathes of the country – they built many of the campsites, fire-towers, ranger stations and roads that support the US National Park system today.

One such byway – the Going to the Sun Road sits in Glacier National Park.  This engineering feat crosses the continental divide at Logan Pass (6646 feet), crossing the park from East to West.  It’s a spectacular road, with massive vistas in every direction as you wind your way through the park.  Unfortunately for us, there had been some cold weather and snow prevented us from doing the complete route, although we saw the majority.

However, we loved what we did see, and we did a couple of very pretty walks.  The awesome open top red buses from the 1930s that ferry visitors along the road are a brilliant sight against the green, blue and white colours of the mountains, and a historic link.  The park really is the “Crown in the Continent” – pristine alpine scenery, arguably the most beautiful we have seen so far.  It is very hard to capture the sheer scale of these canyons and peaks in photos.  The weather has also turned rather crisp to match – the crackling wood fire each night in our chalet is lovely!

The kids have started experiencing park fatigue, they struggle to turn their heads for mere bison or elk…“tell us if you see a grizzly”.  This became apparent to us when Ana looked out one morning and piped up: “how long have we been in the car”?  Mmm, 15 seconds Ana.

Another exchange discussing iPads which are not allowed in the National Parks (trip rule):

Vanessa: I’m not interested in Minecraft, I only like things that are real, like this beautiful scenery.
Amelie: Minecraft is real.  REAL AWESOME!

To add a little balance, Amelie and Daddy embarked on an exhilarating Zipline adventure, and we also spent some time simply hanging out (in a mixture of warm sun and a hailstorm!) in Whitefish, a very cute little Montana town.  Glacier has few roads, but is a hiker’s paradise – we can see ourselves returning to this park at some point in the future.

All Glacier photos are here:  our penultimate stop – the Canadian Rockies  – is next.  A potential rival to the grandeur of America’s Glacier NP?