Going-to-the-Sun Road: don't be fooled by its lyrical name, for Glacier National Park's legendary scenic drive can make your jaw drop, your palms sweat, and your heart soar - A Montana Marvel

Glacier National Park, snugged up in the northwest corner of Montana and hugging the Canadian border, comprises over a million acres of some of the wildest, most rugged, and most stunning scenery in America. You could spend days, even weeks, exploring its forested primeval reaches, but if you've only got a day to see the glories of Glacier, the Going-to-the-Sun Road drive will not disappoint. In fact it will set your heart (and, in one stretch, your nerves) on fire.

I FIRST DROVE IT 25 YEARS AGO, and due to its tricky meander through the deep valleys and mountain fastnesses of Glacier, it hasn't changed at all in a quarter century.

Only the crowds have swelled. But, if you're smart, you'll take the 52-mile switchback road early or late in the day when fewer folk are about and prime photographic light, not to mention active contingents of wildlife (foraging for food), are easier to spot.

This miracle roadway, which took almost 20 years to carve out of the formidable landscape, opened to rave reviews back in 1933 and can be accessed from either end: near the park's west entrance and Lake McDonald, and at the east entrance located at the village of St. Mary and its attendant St. Mary Lake.

Depending on the direction you choose, it's great fun to make reservations for a boat tour on whichever lake you encounter at the end of your drive. Glacier Park Boat Tours (406-257-2426) offers a number of 45-minute and one-and-a-half-hour cruises daily in summer.

Sunny or gray--my first drive was on a leaden, rain-spit kind of day--the road is a wow as you climb up the backbone of the Rockies and, at the top, cross the mythic Continental Divide.

At the west entrance, collect good maps, trail guides, booklets, and ranger advice from the Apgar Visitor Center before proceeding north past Glacier's largest body of water, 10-mile-long Lake McDonald, and along McDonald Creek to Avalanche Creek Campground.

Glacier's many pullouts and hiking trails are found in abundance along the road so do take full advantage. Park and get out for a walk upon the one-half-mile boardwalk loop called Trail of the Cedars. Popular and easily navigated, the boardwalk ribbons through verdant hemlock and cedar forests. Interpretive signs supply pithy bits of information along the way. From here, too, you can hike the more exhilarating three-mile Avalanche Lake Trail to aqua-hued Avalanche Lake and gulp-a-minute sights of glacier-fed waterfalls.

Driving north once again, your jaw drops as you experience--for some 10 miles to the summit--the formation called the Garden Wail. Its jagged rock wall looms above the road as the byway cuts higher into the mountains. Waterfalls stream down beige limestone precipices; valleys spread below in wildflower-strewn meadows; and legions of craggy peaks plunge their needle-top pinnacles into the sky. I remember thinking how like those whimsical oriental scroll paintings of elusive mountain kingdoms it all seemed.

Now comes the lively switchback loop that has you, or your driver, digging fingers down to the knuckle in the upholstery as you nudge along across the Continental Divide to the road's piece de resistance--Logan Pass. Eye-popping views abound as you pull into the stone-mounted visitor center and stare agog at this extraordinary mountain aerie.

There's a good chance of seeing a herd of mountain goats--their spare white beards flapping in the wind. Bighorn sheep and grizzly bears are not uncommon; in fact, Glacier and its surrounding area contain the largest number of these bruins in the Lower 48.

Check with the helpful rangers for trail guides and current site conditions before taking the self-guided, one-and-a-half-mile Hidden Lake Nature Trail for a view of lovely Hidden Lake and the lush McDonald Valley.

I still have the "bear bells" I wore around my ankles (purchased at a park gift shop--much like Christmas or sleigh bells). They made merry music as I tramped along, but also let any bear in the vicinity know of my coming. Happily, I avoided a face-to-snout encounter.

The Hidden Lake Trail Overlook is also a pleasant place to enjoy a picnic lunch if you've had the foresight to pack one before you started the drive (no food or phone available at the visitor center).

Heading east and down towards St. Mary, your heart and knuckles settle back into a nerveless calm as you pull into Jackson Glacier Overlook, which affords a unique chance to see one of the few viewable active glaciers in the park. Experts forecast its shrinking form will disappear in another 100 to 150 years.

The enclosed feeling of sky-blocking mountain walls gives way to broader vistas and high-plains landscapes as the road gentles out along St. Mary Lake. The St. Mary cruise is especially popular as, on calm days, this clear mountain lake reflects mirror images of the snow-topped peaks that soar nearby. (The Lake McDonald cruise is equally delightful, with its spectacular views of the Garden Wall and surrounding glacier-scoured mountains.)