Glacier National Park, Montana

This is definitely a WOW day! We leave Tara's house in Bigfork and take about 1 1/2 hours to get to Glacier National Park. We almost don't go in as the line of cars entering the park looks foreboding, but we are pleasantly surprised to see that once in the park the people seem to melt in all directions through this gigantic area and we don't feel crowded. Glacier National Park has pristine forests, alpine meadows, rugged mountains and spectacular lakes. There are 700 miles of hiking trails that we would love to sample at another time.

Glacier Park Welcome

We enter West Glacier, wander around for awhile, take the "Road to the Sun" over the summit to Logan's Pass and exit East Glacier. Along the way we see snow capped mountains, green streams, blue lakes, bright blue sky, glaciers, forests... The "Road to the Sun" is under construction so we wait about 20 minutes to get to the summit, but it offers time to converse with other motorists. The glaciers in the park are disappearing due to global warming.

Since we spent most of the day in the park, we don't make many miles this day. We travel to Shelby, Montana. This small city offers limited options for lodging and we meet many other motorcyclists in the Comfort Inn. Information is exchanged - go here, don't go here, this road is good, avoid this one. The general consensus is that the road near Williston, North Dakota is really in poor repair - there has been oil found in that region and the masses of trucks going to and from the area has ruined the road. We were originally planning on going through there, but this is the first of many changed plans on our way Eastward.