North of Harlowton we see huge broad fields of
wheat and in the middle hundreds of brand new wind turbines, the company is
called Invenenergy. The cattle and deer
don’t mind. This is an area of miles of
blizzard fencing and warning signs for gusts of wind. Besides the miles of cattle and calves there
are several sheep ranches, newly shorn and new lambs. Outside Eddie’s Corner we see an Amish buggy
sign and see an Amish boy at one of the travel stops. Before Great Falls we are detoured to the
scenic byway through a beautiful river valley and an area called Sluice Boxes.
When we come to Great Falls we pass over the Missouri River, still quite wide
and still flowing to the Mississippi as we are east of the Continental Divide. We are at 68 degrees and sunny. Spring is very early here. They are at the end of harvesting winter
wheat. We stop at Conrad, a cute prairie
town at the IGA for a few items. We fill
up at Cenex, cheaper farmer Co-op gas at $3.43.
Our goal is to camp at Glacier National Park. We have to drive through Blackfeet Indian
Reservation. The beavers are very active
and everything is dammed along the river.
They have flooded the area as they will do. As we near the park entrance we see the
devastation of a forest fire. It covered
thousands of acres. Looks like it
happened a year or two ago. We enter the
park via Lake St. Mary. The visitor’s
center is closed and only primitive camping is open. We are only able to drive 6 miles into the
park. There are snow patches scattered
around. The lake is glacial blue green
and very high. We hike along the edges
and get a little nervous of this bear country.
There is no evidence of moose even though the browse is good for
them. We see no sign of bears
either. Have spotted some dear and
ground squirrels. The mountains: That is the attraction. We can see a Continental Divide peak from the
road. These are young mountains and
resemble the Canadian Rockies. They
retain some snow cover. However, the
glaciers are all but receded here and will be gone in the next few years. There is not much access to the interior of
the park. We hoped to take the ‘going to the sun highway’ but it is limited to
travel and we can’t go anyway, we are over 21 feet. We decide to stay at the Primitive camp
site. We are self-contained and our
tanks are full (water and fuel) and empty of waste water. There are warnings all around that bears come
into the campground so we’re glad we are not tent camping like others in the
area. The air is cooling and it will be
a long sunlit evening as we move north.
We saw a couple of our Alaska campers today. There is always a wave or a horn toot.
We
have stopped early tonight. It’s a long
day tomorrow going over the border. Have
to make a Walmart stop in Calgary and then will camp in Banff tomorrow night. We
have great anticipation of our drive through the Canadian Rockies. They are some of the most beautiful mountains
in the world. There is public bus transport at our campground so getting into
town should be fine. We have our eyes
set on a Greek restaurant that we like and hope it’s still operating. It’s Victoria Weekend and all of Calgary will
be heading north to Banff. Luckily we’ll
be pulling out just before and we have reservations.
It’s
still light but we are tired. Hope the
bears don’t visit tonight. At least
we’re not in a tent taco! Goodnight.
Miles: 413
Total RV Miles to date: 1373
Hours traveled:
7 1/2 hours
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