Sunday July 6th
2014
Radium Hot Springs,
BC – Cut Bank, MT
342 miles, 7 hours 3 minutes
347 miles, 6:56 am – 5:47 pm
Cloudy and rainy morning. Early start – we wanted to
have as much time to see the Glacier National Park. Almost three
hours to the border crossing. Rain on and off. Still very nice
landscape, mountains in the back, valleys, rivers, and farms. Our
last border crossing – same silly questions and answers and
“welcome to the USA”. It would be quite painful to have the car
checked. Another hour and half to get to the park entrance. Quite
similar landscape. A lot of bugs on our windshield. Town of Whitefish
– looked nice but we did not stop. It was close to the midday when
we entered the park – about 10 cars three lanes into the booths.
Warm and sunny. Visitor center – smaller but very crowded. Not
very pleasant start. The landscape was very pretty though.
Going to the sun road – the gem of the park. Drive
along the lake McDonald. Exceptional scenery. River. Old lodge –
lake, sun, boats, something really great. 50 miles of the road going
to the sun. Old red buses – tour buses running through the park.
http://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm
Several miles of flat road along the lake, within really nice forest.
High mountains. Some snow. Road along the mountains. Waterfalls.
Drive along the cliff – it was somewhat uncomfortable to be so high
and have deep gorge next to the car. According to J. there were
incredibly amazing views of the valley and surrounding mountains. A
lot of cars. Later we read some information boards and watch a movie
about the creation of the park and the relationship between native
people and the government. The road, amazing and incredible, cuts
through the heart of the park=mountains that were sacred to the
native people. It is hard to say how much time we spent driving the
road. J. was more than excited about the views and experience. I did
not really enjoy the drive and the engine was running warmer then I
wanted to see (luckily it did not overheat). It is hard to describe
it with words. Logan Pass – Continental divide. Bunch of snow.
Bunch of people. Mountain goats or sheep. Parked and walked around
the area. Going down on the other side was different – the road was
under the construction = dirt road. Some pull offs and other places
were closed. Some other were full of cars. Nice views. Lake Mary. Few
stops. Saint Mary visitor center – emptier, peaceful. Movie and
voices of native people. We were quite tired (about 4:17 pm). There
was a though of visiting another park's area but we decided against
it. Drive to Cut Bank (an hour and half). The road with so many turns
and twist. Back and forth. It got flatter. Boring. At one point we
almost hit cows crossing the road (no warning). It would be crazy –
all the way to Alaska and back without any collision with wildlife
and now we almost hit the cows. Cut Bank: sad town. Groceries. Quick
car wash. Sad looking motel. We were done with the good part of the
trip. There was drive home part left.
