Day 07 - Waterton National Park, Canada to Great Falls, Montana

Where to start! Is it’s been a busy couple of days with soooo many things to share. I’ve uploaded a load of new pictures to http://picasaweb.google.com/BradnBev/Vacation2009. I had to split this into 2 blogs so be sure to read Day 06 if you missed it!

Starting the day out at the Prince of Wales Hotel we hid in the covers a bit not wanting to get out of bed. The view was great, the bed was comfy and after riding for 6 days straigt we were understandably a bit in need of just vacationing...even for just an hour.

After finally getting going I was standing by the window looking over at the far shore when I saw something out in the water just a bit...I was thinking bear but it was way too big. It moved back up on shore and we were able to determine it was a moose! It decided it wanted to be on our side of the lake so it just swam across and it did it in short order. (Fun Fact: Brad saw a sign that says a moose can swim 6 mph across a body of water) Soon we found it was a female moose and was just below our room. She was scared off by the folks on the lower level but it was our first moose sighting.

Leaving Waterton Lakes National Parks, Canada we headed for the US border and into Montana. Our first destination for the day would be Glacier National Park.

The eastern entrance to the park was chilly, windy, and initially threatened by clouds. But all of that soon cleared as we started moving in to the park. Since we are on bikes we can’t really read the map, so sometimes we would be past a stop before we would see the sign. So though we could see the sight form the road picture some opportunities were definitely missed.

After stopping to see Jackson Glacier we headed to the west side of the park where there was a lot of construction on the 1000 foot down hill decent. We hit every thing from small patches of gravel to large sections of dirt and a bit of mud but, all in all, the ride on “Going to the Sun Road” was both beautiful and memorable.

We thought about re-riding the “Going to the Sun Road” from west to east and stopping at the places we missed but with the construction we thought better of it and headed east via US 2 which follows the bottom of the park, not the same view but scenic.

We entered Browning, Montana in the Blackfeet Nation right as the school buses began running. So we stopped several times for the children to cross the street. Once out of town the road opened up to long stretches of open rolling hills and plains.

I almost scared Brad to death by coming to a quick halt (something I rarely do) so I could stop and view some statues signifying the Blackfeet Nation. I had seen some up by Browning but missed them so I was glad for a second set. Taking a closer look we were amazed to find out the statues were made from old car parts…they were really neat to look at in person.

The road in to Great Falls was long and straight then turned to some nice winding sections and back to long and straight. We got in earlier then expected….


Tomorrow is a “Travel” day. No major stops or sights as we head to Red Lodge, Montana and prepare to head over Beartooth Pass and into Yellowstone.