Monday, July 7, 2014 We started out our day with a brief rain shower. We got ready and left around 9:00. It was a mostly cloudy day with a temp of 64. Great Falls sits in a huge river valley, but in the distance we could see these immense buttes. It was very interesting terrain.
The land in northern Montana has a lot of grasslands for grazing cattle and immense parcels of farmland. Then all of a sudden, we came upon this canyon cut by the Marias River in the middle of flat land in every direction.
We passed through the town of Cut Bank. It was quite a large city in the middle of nowhere.
It is one of the last large cities before entering Canada on this particular road.
It also sits on the edge of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
We noticed this herd of buffalo grazing on the hillside.
From there, we headed directly west and got a clear view of the Rocky Mountains.
There was still a lot of snow on the tops.
The road went on and on going straight forever it seemed.
The row of telephone poles created an interesting pattern along the side of the road.
Part of the land was “Open Range” and we were warned to watch for cattle on the highway. We didn’t encounter any cattle, but we did see a coyote standing in a field. The road took us closer and closer to the mountains.
As we traveled north and then west towards Glacier Nat’l Park, we passed through HUGE farm fields–some fallow, some productive with wheat. These fields created such a beautiful checkerboard pattern of white, light green, and dark green.
Once we came into the town of Browning, we knew we were getting close and the excitement was building. We saw this teepee that was a coffee shop at our turn to Highway 464 out of Browning to St. Mary.
We took Hwy. 464 out of Browning because we were told Hwy. 89 to St. Mary from Browning was 31 miles of switchbacks. Bob didn’t want to drive on that. Highway 464 was the road that the campground suggested we take, so we did. On our drive today at different times, we saw 2 vehicles pulling similar trailers from Alaska. What a coincidence! The views kept getting better and better as we neared our St. Mary KOA Campground. This was the view over Lower St. Mary Lake.
We arrived around 1:00 and took a great site with views of the mountains all around. This is the view from our door to the front.
This is the view towards the back. It is awesome!
We got everything set up and settled in. We finally made it!! I am so happy to be here!
The sun came out and the temp. rose to 90 in the sun. It was really warm at this altitude. We did a little planning for our trip from Glacier Nat’l Park to Denver where we’ll spend some time with Bob’s youngest sister, Suzie and her family. Afterwards, we took Auggie for a walk around the campground and stopped for a run, off-leash, in the grassy field area. He loved it and ran around until he collapsed from exhaustion in the shade. We had fun just watching him have fun! The park was beginning to fill up as more campers checked in for the night. We spotted this vehicle checking in at the office. We had seen one in Yellowstone too. It is called a Jucy RV and comes complete with everything- from a kitchen to a “penthouse”. It’s like a mini Minnie-Winnie. Very unique!
We sat outside enjoying our gorgeous view before dinner. Bob grilled steaks to celebrate our arrival. We relaxed a little after dinner and then took Auggie for his evening walk. We are looking forward to our “Red Bus” halfway tour on the Going-To-The-Sun-Road tomorrow.
OMG, I think think I’m as excited as you are. I can’t wait to see your pictures. We are booked for site C-3. We’ve been told we would have a view of the mountains. Maybe because they all do? Maybe you could check it out for us? Could you let us know if there is a better one we should ask for? Enjoy your time there and be sure to post LOTS of pics!