Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 10

Today we planned a visit to Glacier National Park. We got up at 8 am and packed up the truck and were ready to leave by 9.30. We took US Route 93 north. Once we reached the junction with Highway 40 we followed it east to US Route 2 and followed it to the west entrance of Glacier National Park. We got a annual pass for all National Parks for 80 bucks. That might sound a lot, but by the time this vacation is over it will have paid for itself.

First we checked out the visitor center and Lake McDonald. We followed the "Going to the Sun Road". We got to see lots of forests, rapids, white water, water falls and lakes. Then the road started climbing. We got to see the aftermath of an avalanche. It was a narrow and windy road, fortunately Harry was driving but he found it fun to drive. He just loves driving mountain roads because it reminds him of home and roads in the Austrian Alps. The higher up you get the more amazing and breath taking the views become. The view right in front of you is absolutely breath taking, you turn around and there is even a more amazing view. Harry and I took tons of pix and video. Shortly before we reached Logan Pass the road narrowed to a 1 lane road since an avalanche had taken out part of the road a couple of years ago. We were in luck and there was no wait on our side. Once we got to Logan Pass we drove by several snow fields. We also saw a mountain goat on one of the snow fields. That was very cool.

Once we passed Logan Pass we went down on the east side. The road on the east side is not impressive as it was on the west side.

Once we reached St. Mary's we jumped onto US Route 89 and followed it south, until we reached the junction with highway 82. We followed highway 82 until we reached the junction with highway 83. we followed it south to State Route 200 until we reached I-15. We were driving through lots and lots of rural area's of Montana. Rolling hills as far as the eye can see. It was pretty amazing. It gave Harry and I a very good idea what the great planes must have felt to the first settlers.

One thing we learned is that if you go on a road trip through rural Montana make sure your car has enough gas and you bring enough food and water with you, as it might be a few hundred miles until you can stock up on these items. As there was nothing... nothing in the rural parts of Montana.

We finally reached the city of Helena. I'm talking about a real city and not some tiny, rural townships. We had Wendy's for very late lunch and then continued on the I-15 south. around 7.30 pm we finally reached our hotel in the city of Butte, Montana.