Crossing Borders - Alberta to Montana

Day 4 - We got a late start after stopping at the only spot in the park with enough cell reception to publish the last post, check email and confirm the border times at Carway, AB. Garmin Gertie, as Pete has dubbed the GPS, took us on our first little detour of the trip when she decided that the most direct route was down some gravel range roads leaving Dinosaur Park on the way to Taber, AB. Today’s drive was again on straight, flat roads through more green and yellow lush ranch/farm lands. From Taber to a lunch stop in a lovely city park in Lethbridge (where we threw out the last of our meat, fruit and vegetables in preparation for US Agriculture rules) and on to Cardston where the mountains appeared again in the background. We turned down Hwy 2 and crossed the border at Carway/Pelgin after a wait of about 25 minutes which seemed far longer than the size of the crossing should warrant. No questions about what food items we had on board, oh well, better safe than sorry.

We reached St Mary’s campground in Glacier National Park about 3:30pm after restocking some of our missing grocery items. We camped on the west side of Glacier on the shores of McDonald Lake for a few days four or five years ago, but a forest fire kept us from taking the tent trailer to this side. This campground is not right on St. Mary’s Lake and the east side seems to be dominated by deciduous trees, unlike the west where evergreens surrounded the campsites. We do get a view of the mountains from this site

 and camping fees included complimentary tokens for the very clean and spacious showers that are housed in a building exactly opposite our site. Early evening saw a steady stream of campers arriving to line up to take advantage of this feature. It is somewhat cooler here so close to the mountains; 25c as opposed to the 30c of the past few afternoons. We were relieved to find that the mosquitoes hadn’t followed us and so for the first night we were able to sit outside after dinner and read until the light failed. While relaxing we had a visit from the Park host who was advising of a severe storm warning promising thunder, lightening, heavy rain, wind and hail due to arrive the following afternoon and recommending precautions such as putting the awning down.

Day 5 – One of the preeminent features of this park is the Going to the Sun Road, a narrow, twisting mountain road that links the east and the west sides of the park with an elevation gain of 6,646 ft     at Logan Pass affording some spectacular views of mountains, glaciers, lakes, rivers, the continental divide, wildflowers, and, if you are lucky, wildlife. Vehicles travelling the route are restricted to more than 21 Ft. so no trailers, trucks or motorhomes. On our previous visit we dubbed the route the Going to the Smoke Road as much of the views were obscured by the smoke from the forest fires so we were keen to do it again. However, when we woke to almost fog, we were concerned that we might be calling this year’s trip Going to the Clouds. But the sun broke through as we left the campsite

 

but the clouds descended again when we were at the lookout for Ghost Island in St. Mary’s Lake.

The muck thickened and completely enshrouded us when we parked at the Logan Pass Visitor’s Center.  It was cold and damp, like BC in February, but we pressed on and only a mile or so further on as we started the descent, the mist started to clear, blue sky appeared and big puffy clouds wrapped around the peaks

The remainder of the route to McDonald Lake Lodge (where a little fellow tried to join our picnic until Mazy had other ideas)

and back was mixed sun and cloud with plenty of opportunities to appreciate the dramatic scenery,

 catch a couple views of mountain goats,

and see St. Mary’s Lake in a different light.

We were glad that we had made an early start and were able to relax back at the almost deserted campsite during the afternoon. It was nice, especially for Pete, to have a break from a long day of towing the trailer down unfamiliar roads. The threatened thunder storm started to make its arrival known at about 5:00pm and we had a short 15 – 20 minutes of heavy rain, thunder and lightening but not the strong wind they had been predicting so pretty benign and now there is a pink sky sunset so we are hoping for good weather when we get back on the road tomorrow.

Day 6 - A long hot day driving across  Montana. Now I know why they call this Big Sky Country. Black Angus cattle, hay fields, the most gigantic wind farm you can imagine. Several long sections of road work made for an even longer day so we were lucky to get one of the last remaining sites at the Billings KOA, apparently the state games are going on here this weekend.