Montana - Glacier National Park

Yesterday we had a relatively short ride of 285 kms from Helena on Interstate 15 North. We stopped for lunch at Great Falls and visited the local Harley Davidson dealership on the way through. Our stop for the day was the town of Conrad. This was to be our base for our assault on Glacier National Park the next day.

This morning we had an early start, leaving at 7:00am. We continued north on Interstate 15 and turned left on to Highway 2 West at the town of Shelby. The road wound up the foothills of the Rockies with some stunning views of the Rocky Mountain peaks. It was overcast and freezing cold however and the road was still wet from rain earlier that morning. The clouds still looked threatening over the peaks - so I was feeling a little pessimistic about our chances of staying warm and dry!

The gateway to Glacier National Park is the town of St Mary - only a few miles from the US/Canadian border. We stopped for fuel and then headed into the park.

Glacier National Park covers nearly a million acres (405.000 ha) over the northern Rocky Mountains and adjoins Waterton Lakes National Park across the Canadian border. The park contains a wide variety of landscapes including 4 glaciers, limestone cliffs, lakes and waterfalls. There are also moose, wolves and bears roaming the park (not that we could see any on our way through).

The access from the west to the east entrance is via the Going-to-the-Sun Mountain Road. This is 80 km of winding road that takes you past St Mary Lake, over the narrow mountain road of Logans Pass with breathtaking views down forested valleys and across to mountain peaks and past Lake McDonald. It would have been more breathtaking if the day was not cold and overcast.......and then it rained.

We have been very fortunate on this tour with the weather. Apart from a couple of light showers and a couple of close calls with lightening storms, we have generally had warm, hot conditions (heat waves at times). Today made up for it. We stopped and put on our wet weather gear about 30kms from the east exit and then rode all the way to the town of Kalispell our stop for the day. Although not wet through - we were both chilled after riding at high altitude over the Rockies.

Because we had not stopped more often to do some short walks and take photos after we hit the rain, we arrived too early to check in. We left our luggage at the motel and went off to find a warm diner for some hot food. The receptionist said that it was a pity we had not gone through the park yesterday - it was a perfect day. All part of the adventure I guess!