September 7th, 2022
We loaded up the bikes and found a decent place in Kalispell for breakfast, then turned for Glacier National Park. I'm apologizing in advance; this is a photo heavy post!
We found it...and the smoke. That'd play a spoiler for much of our trip through, unfortunately.
Passing time while shuffling forward slowly.
The line getting in was very long.
We finally...get closer.
The line getting in really wasn't too terrible as it at least kept moving along. The somewhat irksome fact of it though was that a good half of the cars in line did NOT have reservations to get in. About 2-300 yards before the entrance booth, there were two rangers checking for entrance reservations and it looked like a good 50% of the cars were being turned around and asked to leave. The rangers checked Bob and I and we moved on up and, finally, into the park!
I took a billion photos in the park and some of the following may not be in their proper order, but we'll see how I do.
I was last at Glacier as a pre-teen child, on a family vacation (we once had family that lived on Flathead Lake, and we were visiting them), so our visit today was pretty fresh for me, yet hints of my childhood emerged here and there. The smoke, on the other hand, wasn't just a hint.
Making the climb up Going to the Sun Road...traffic going up was NOT bad!
The views were, of course, spectacular, despite the smoke.
But smoke did obscure details one would normally see.
This couple owned the road apparently; there was room for a car in front of us, as I recall, but they decided to be morons.
Hints of snow were around, but we saw nothing major close to the road.
Just breathtaking! All one can really do is be awed at nature's creation.
Of course I did.
Scenic.
Most of the waterfall areas were trickles.
But I found one close.
Nearing the top of Logan Pass
Lovely.
We reached the top of Logan Pass and pulled into the visitor's center parking lot to take a break. Motorcycle-only parking between the end bollards was really nice, considering all of the cars circling like vultures, looking for a spot to park. We met some nice fellow bikers and spent some time taking photos and conversing.
Then we started down on the eastern side, heading towards Saint Mary.
Burn scars along Saint Mary Lake, from a recent fire.
The lake was a fire break, from the looks of it; lots of good trees on the other side while our side was burned out.
Gratuitous beauty shot.
Looking back into the park; burn scar on the right.
And then, it was over. Just as well, my lanyard camera battery was completely dead after that workout; it would see no more use on this trip.
We pulled into Saint Mary for an ice cream break and to start looking into where we'd be stopping for the night. The sign advertising ice cream, outside of the store, was lying...they had none. We sat on the steps and drank some Gatorade while perusing hotel rooms down the road. Beside us was an Argentinian couple on adventure bikes, covered with all sorts of stickers and flags; they were on a journey. On top of one of the bikes sat a dog carrier; they had a cute small dog with them that liked barking at us, heh. Meanwhile, Bob had tracked down a room for us in Malta, 277 miles east of Saint Mary, and was on the phone with the owner, assuring her we'd make it there at a decent time (it was around 1-2pm at this point, as I recall).
Once our room for the night was secured, we struck out east, made it a few miles down the road, and ran into a bizarre construction zone; we could see miles of pavement missing in the distance. First, we had to wait for the pilot car to show up, then, once we got rolling, it was about 10 miles of gravel, rock, mud, soft dirt, all of which Bob was not enjoying. The thing about this construction zone was the stopping and waiting for front-end loaders, dump trucks, and bulldozers to finish whatever they were doing so that we could pass. There were no set lanes as we meandered all over the area where a highway used to be. At one point, a bulldozer was pushing dirt mere inches off to my right...figured a rock would roll off the blade and in front of me, lol. We finally made it to the other end, Bob cursing the entire way, and encountered a group of Harley riders waiting for the pilot car; they yelled out, asking how it was, to which we replied, "It sucked!!". Then we got back on pavement and made for Malta.
The wind was pretty fierce on the trek eastward, but we kept at it. We fueled up in Shelby, MT, which just happens to be the home of Welker Farms, yet another YouTube channel I follow, lol. A great family farming operation; and a big one at that (
https://www.youtube.com/c/WelkerFarmsInc).
We rolled into Malta around 6:30 in the evening, greeted by the owner and her big pack of small dogs. It turned out to be a decent place!
Malta, MT...middle of nowhere.
We walked into the town center, looking for the bar and grille that was supposed to be there. There, I enjoyed the last 8oz steak they had while Bob had to settle for a 6oz. We met up with a fellow rider from Canada, I seem to recall he was on an ADV bike, and shared appetizers while spinning yarns of the highway.
Our kind of place.
The route of the day.
The end was near (and so is my photo collection); we'd be pushing tomorrow.
More to come!
