Today’s theme was all about the Rocky Mountains (both
Canadian and U.S.) and very intense wind. We woke to the pitter patter of rain
on the roof of our inn. Being optimistic, we delayed getting the bike packed
before breakfast with the hope that the rain clouds would move on. No such
luck!
We donned our rain gear and got on the road at about 9:30am,
right when the rain stopped, so luck was on our side after all. It was sad to
see the beautiful mountain peaks of Waterton Lakes in our rear view mirror.
Our route today was about 350 miles, longer than it usually
takes to get to Glacier National Park due to a planned “long way ‘round” as
well as the portion of Going to the Sun Road being closed from the forest fire.
For our morning portion of the trip we were surrounded by the Canadian Rockies
and they were impressive.
We were happy to leave our rain gear on due to very cool
temperatures—in the upper 50s.
Our route took us southeast towards flatter grazing land and
great views.
We encountered this interesting rainbow low and horizontal
across the road. Rob called it “the tie-dyed sky”.
It was around this point that the wind became insane.
Michele had read before leaving today that the Waterton Lakes forecast called for 50mph winds gusting to
70mph! We’re fairly certain it was not that intense, but it moved us around quite a bit on the bike.
Our route took us over Crow’s Nest Pass which is a
relatively low elevation pass. Upon entering the Crow’s Nest Municipality we
drove through this famous rock slide area, the Frank Slide. In the early 1900s
this mountain side gave way and covered a portion of the town in just 100
seconds. It looked like we drove through a rock quarry. Boulders as large as
cars were scattered on either side of the road.
There were signs promising Rocky Mountain Sheep crossings,
but we saw no such animals today. Instead, we were rewarded with mountains.
On the other side of the pass we crossed into British
Columbia, our fifth and last Canadian Province on this trip.
We also saw what was advertised as the biggest truck in the
world in Sparwood.
We made our way through the border crossing and the scenery
approaching Eureka, Montana was amazing.
Not long after we hit road construction. And typical of the
western U.S. and what we experienced on previous trips out west there was no
pavement at all.
We soon arrived at West Glacier, but instead of taking the
twisty and famous Going to the Sun Road in the park, we had to take a less direct
route via a highway around to West Glacier. Due to the forest fires in Glacier
NP the eastern portion of Going to the Sun Road is closed.
It was this last 70 miles that was really tough for us. The
wind pummeled us and was very cold. There really wasn’t anywhere to stop to put
on more gear either. The cross-winds were likely in excess of 40 mph. Rob slowed
our speed down by 15 mph (posted speed limit was 70 mph) to help the situation. The
winds were still strong enough to have the bike lean left as we were going
around right hand turns at 55 mph. Nevertheless, the skies finally gave us some
sunshine.
We entered Browning and more construction.
Around 5pm we arrived in East Glacier. Nice views!
The road into the park is not so nice. We had about four “rough
road” sections.
But with views like this it was a minor inconvenience.
We arrived at Many Glacier lodge which will be our base of
operations for the next three days.
Tomorrow we may choose a hike to explore the area.
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