Audio
Going-to-the-Sun Road: Weeping Wall
Transcript
[Narration] This series of waterfalls delights early season visitors to the park as they drive right by and for westbound travelers sometimes right through its spray. More than one savvy driver has driven just a tad closer to the cliff edge by this spot, surprising passengers in the back seat with a hefty dose of clear, cold, mountain water as it splashes through the open windows. By August, the gushing torrent dries up to a mere trickle and looks more like a weeping wall than the impressive cascades seen when the road first opens in early summer.
Most people don’t realize that this entire series of waterfalls is a remnant of the construction of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. As engineers carved through the rock here, they created a cliff, which water from springs and melting snows above pour over and onto the road surface below. Special drains were designed into the road to allow the bulk of the water to pass below the pavement, but on days of especially heavy flow a small stream of water covers both lanes of traffic for a short distance.
Description
This series of waterfalls delights early season visitors to Glacier National Park as they drive through its spray, but did you know that these waterfalls were man made?
Duration
1 minute, 10 seconds
Credit
Glacier National Park
Date Created
08/05/2015
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