Mulvanys on the Road: Day 9

Today was a day to relax, not drive too much, and get rested for the big drive to Yellowstone. It is only 3:00 pm and I'm writing this blog. We have been moving at a easy pace today. After breakfast, we drove to the park to some souvenir shopping and take a last drive around Lake McDonald. We also stopped at the usual tourist traps and filled up with gas before we hook up the camper tomorrow. Gas at West Glacier was $3.88 a gallon but we paid our highest so far of $4.17 on the east side of the park yesterday. Since today is a quiet blog day, I need to get in some info about what we did yesterday. So here goes, turn the calendar back one day to Sunday, September 23.

Because we couldn't cross directly through the park because the only road is closed from West Glacier to Logan Pass, we drove 100 miles around the south end of the park to St Mary's east entrance and took the "Going to the Sun Road" to Logan Pass. Actually, it turned out to be a blessing because we had never been on that road and discovered that it was very beautiful. We took US Highway 2 to state highway 49. Highway 49 was 12 miles of two-lane, twists and turns. There were some curves that required slowing down to 20MPH. It was also open cattle range so we had to watch out for a cow or cows here and there wandering along the road with the cars. We both spent a lot of time rubbernecking because it was so beautiful. On the way back, I realized how near the road was to the edge of the mountain because that was the side I was on. I was nervous but even more so when I thought about the earlier trip on this mountain. It is true that ignorance is bliss, because I sure wasn't blissful on the second time on the road.

We got to the park and drove from the east entrance to Logan's Pass. What more can I say, except it was beautiful beyond words. We also drove the Many Glacier Road near the Canadian border. There we saw Grinnel Glacier. This park is famous for the Rocky Mountain sheep but we didn't see any. We stopped for a late lunch at St. Mary's. There wasn't even a Mcdonalds or Subway to be seen so we brought sandwiches and chips at a food mart and ate in the truck. We were fortunate enough to be serenaded by an old man playing a trumpet (and he played it quite well, I should add.). He had a long white beard and a trumpet and ram's horn. He walked to the edge of the road near the intersection and began to play his ram's horn, then he played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" . From that song, he played The Marine Corps and The Army songs. The last song we heard was The Air Force song. If we had stayed longer he probably would have played Anchors Away, as well. It was an interesting way to have music with our meal!

We got back to camp around 6:00pm and because I was tired, I only posted pictures. Tomorrow we plan to drive to Yellowstone which is approximately 400 miles, about half of which will be two lane roads. We are sad to leave here both because of the beauty we see all around us and because of this super great KOA. I know we will see beauty at Yellowstone but we aren't sure that our next campground can compare to this one.
Next post will be from Yellowstone.