Not-Glacier Day 3 Shelby to East Glacier

Thursday, July 2, 2020

Today’s destination was much closer that yesterday’s. Originally the plan was to stay in the park, but when they rescheduled us from early June, they could only give us two nights, so we made a reservation at Traveler’s Rest Lodge in East Glacier Park, MT. Like the name says, it was just outside the park—about 70 miles from Shelby. The plan had been to explore the east entrances to the park on our way. Only all the east entrances are closed.

Bleh!

US 89 was marked scenic on in our book. We went south on I-15 to Great Falls to catch US89 coming north. I-15 was just like the fields we drove through yesterday—a wasted hour. US89 was a little better—the mountains were visible in the distance to the west. Pretty, but not worth going out of our way for. But we stayed on US89 north of US2 most of the way to the Canadian border. Now THAT was what I call scenic.

It was a cloudy day or I would have had Steve stopping at every pull out. We had hopes of taking MT17 toward the park, but that is reservation land and the sign said it was closed. But the road to the park entrance at Bara wasn’t. Beautiful gravel road along a rushing stream. We went as far as the park entrance and turned back. 

Rather than stay on US89 all the way back to US2, we cut west on MT49, a wonderful winding road through the mountains along the edge of the park and Two Medicine Lake.

Lovely wild flowers.

The lady at the hotel said when the park is open that road is very crowded, but today it was lovely and lonely.

Our lodge is a delightful cabin, heated by a gas fireplace.

Steve figured out right away that she was from Minnesota when she signed off a phone call with “You betcha.” The only negative is the large high windows that have no covering. So we expect to be up by 5 AM to continue exploring!

I find myself deeply disappointed (almost resentful) at all we can’t see. I asked the lodge couple about hiking nearby. They loaned me a can of bear spray and sent me S on 2 to road marker 203 where there is a pull out parking area and a trail head. I found it easily and the scenery was spectacular despite the cold wind, but after I crossed the railroad tracks I found a sign. “Stop. Glacier National Park is Closed. Do not remove this sign on pain of…” whatever. 

Montanans are very independent. The sign didn’t say, “Do Not Enter” in so many words. I probably could have continued. If the sun had been shining, I probably would have overcome my propensity to obey rules. But the clouds were dark and the wind was cold, so I took a few pictures and came home to the cabin to download them. Sigh. Another trip to Glacier will be a must.

I did take some pictures...

Supper was a large can of Hormel chili with corn chips, the end of our lettuce and some cheese. It would have been a lot easier to warm that quantity in a pan, but all we had was a microwave. Sour cream would have been nice, but it tasted fine.