don't know to begin to describe this day. The only word that comes to mind is AWESOME !!! This day alone was worth the entire trip so far.
We left Cut Bank mid morning and headed towards Glacier National Park. We had decided to tide two different roads. First we went north to ride into Glacier and visit Many Glacier. The road in is about 12 miles long, then ends in a turn around and you come back out. The scenery here was just beautiful. We spent about an hour and a half to make the ride in and out. Besides the beautiful scenery we say a moose, a grizzly cub and some cows....yes cows.
Coming out of Many Glacier we headed to the Road to the Sun. This is a road about 40 miles in length that goes from the east side of Glacier to the West side. Before heading up the road we stopped in St Mary's for some lunch and to grab a few souvenirs. The ride in and up to Logans Pass (which is about 18 miles in) presented some magnificent views. The mountains are huge and absolutely beautiful. There was still plenty of snow on the mountains. We wound our way to Logan's Pass where there is a visitors center and some hiking trails. We left the bikes and ventured on foot. The visitors center is at 6500 feet. We took a "walk" to Hidden Lake. The walk ended up being about six mile in length round trip and took us up another 600 feet to about 7100 feet. I cannot put into works the views we had. Along the way we say Columbian Ground Squirrels, Mountain Goats, Mule Deer, and Hoary Marmots. It ended up taking us about four hours to do our walk. It was worth every step.
Leaving Logan's pass we continued through the mountains on a two lane road that twisted and turned its way through the cut rock. At points there were waterfalls that sprayed the road. Sheer drop offs switched from one side of the road to the other and to top it off a large section of the road was unpaved (semi-packed gravel). It was exciting.
After a several picture stops we made it through the mountains to West Glacier. Having spent more time than we had intended, the sun was already going down. We continued down US2 stopping in Hungry Horse for gas. Locals there, seeing we were on bikes strongly advised us not to continue due to the large number of deer on the roads at dusk. We tried to find a hotel, but everything in the town and all nearby towns was booked up. We had no choice but to continue. So, we headed on down US2 to Montana 82 and then Montana 3 which ran south on the west shore of Flathead lake. We kept our eyes open for deer, seeing close to a dozen along the way before it became too dark to see. At the same time we had to keep our eyes on a dark rain cloud that was between us and our planned destination of Missoula. About an hour after leaving Hungry Horse we arrived in Poulson where we lucked up and got the last two rooms at a resort there. We were about 60 miles short of our destination but the lightning in the sky ahead told us it would be wiser to stop.
The mileage for the day was only 240 miles bringing the total to 2640. But, this was not meant to be a day of many miles. It was meant to be a sightseeing day.
Plans for tomorrow are to ride to West Yellowstone in anticipation of the following day in Yellowstone National Park.
The pictures above are just a sample of what was taken. These were all taken with the pocket point and shoot. I have about 300 additional shots on my digital SLR that I will post to a shared site when we return.
We left Cut Bank mid morning and headed towards Glacier National Park. We had decided to tide two different roads. First we went north to ride into Glacier and visit Many Glacier. The road in is about 12 miles long, then ends in a turn around and you come back out. The scenery here was just beautiful. We spent about an hour and a half to make the ride in and out. Besides the beautiful scenery we say a moose, a grizzly cub and some cows....yes cows.
Coming out of Many Glacier we headed to the Road to the Sun. This is a road about 40 miles in length that goes from the east side of Glacier to the West side. Before heading up the road we stopped in St Mary's for some lunch and to grab a few souvenirs. The ride in and up to Logans Pass (which is about 18 miles in) presented some magnificent views. The mountains are huge and absolutely beautiful. There was still plenty of snow on the mountains. We wound our way to Logan's Pass where there is a visitors center and some hiking trails. We left the bikes and ventured on foot. The visitors center is at 6500 feet. We took a "walk" to Hidden Lake. The walk ended up being about six mile in length round trip and took us up another 600 feet to about 7100 feet. I cannot put into works the views we had. Along the way we say Columbian Ground Squirrels, Mountain Goats, Mule Deer, and Hoary Marmots. It ended up taking us about four hours to do our walk. It was worth every step.
Leaving Logan's pass we continued through the mountains on a two lane road that twisted and turned its way through the cut rock. At points there were waterfalls that sprayed the road. Sheer drop offs switched from one side of the road to the other and to top it off a large section of the road was unpaved (semi-packed gravel). It was exciting.
After a several picture stops we made it through the mountains to West Glacier. Having spent more time than we had intended, the sun was already going down. We continued down US2 stopping in Hungry Horse for gas. Locals there, seeing we were on bikes strongly advised us not to continue due to the large number of deer on the roads at dusk. We tried to find a hotel, but everything in the town and all nearby towns was booked up. We had no choice but to continue. So, we headed on down US2 to Montana 82 and then Montana 3 which ran south on the west shore of Flathead lake. We kept our eyes open for deer, seeing close to a dozen along the way before it became too dark to see. At the same time we had to keep our eyes on a dark rain cloud that was between us and our planned destination of Missoula. About an hour after leaving Hungry Horse we arrived in Poulson where we lucked up and got the last two rooms at a resort there. We were about 60 miles short of our destination but the lightning in the sky ahead told us it would be wiser to stop.
The mileage for the day was only 240 miles bringing the total to 2640. But, this was not meant to be a day of many miles. It was meant to be a sightseeing day.
Plans for tomorrow are to ride to West Yellowstone in anticipation of the following day in Yellowstone National Park.
The pictures above are just a sample of what was taken. These were all taken with the pocket point and shoot. I have about 300 additional shots on my digital SLR that I will post to a shared site when we return.
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