Day 35 August 5, 2024 St Mary Montana to Choteau Montana 188 miles
This morning was extremely foggy. We could hardly see the neighboring RVs. The grass is also very wet because it rained some yesterday. The mountains are definitely out of sight.
We are hoping to drive the Going to the Sun Highway today. Rob needed to back the car just a few inches because it had rolled a little yesterday. The car did not want to start. He tried for at least five minutes before it finally started. Resolution: The Weber carburetor does not need to be choked very much. Then we were off to the gas station.
The little community of St Mary is full of tourist in all kinds of vehicles both large and small. Those businesses sit on the highway a short distance from the entrance to Glacier National Park. We filled with gas and headed to the park. The fog has lifted for the most part.
When we got to the gate the ticket taker told us we could not take the trailer on the road. Our total length is 25 feet. The maximum length is feet. Rob tried to change her mind but nothing doing. The best we could do was leave the trailer in the Visitors Center parking lot and drive the car to the west side of the park and then back. The suggestion was to turn around at the MacDonald Lodge because that would be easier. That was a good suggestion except the parking lot is only about 50% of the size it needs to be. We did get lucky and found one parking space. We unhitched the trailer and pushed it into place.
If you enter the park from the east you don’t need a reservation to go on the highway. If you enter from the west you must have a reservation or enter before 6 am or after 3 pm. We certainly felt there were more cars going east in the morning than west. That was a good thing for us. Also good for us was the fact that the speed limits are slow. Not so good is the fact that most turnouts are full. The scenery is incredible. You have to see it to appreciate it. There is also a shuttle bus system that does a hop on hop off from one end of the park to the other. If you don’t like that there are the reproduction red tour busses. The road is very narrow and windy. You can often reach out and touch the rocks on the side. It took us about 1 hour 45 minutes to get to MacDonald Lodge. We ate lunch there and luckily beat the crowd. When we left the wait time was 35 minutes. The return trip was a little faster.
The car did incredibly well. It never overheated. The brakes kept working. Makes quite a difference without the trailer.
When we got back to the trailer someone with a small car had parked behind it so it was blocked in. They had been good enough to leave room to get it out between cars with some help from four ladies. Unfortunately Rob forgot to remove the trailer tongue jack wheel on so when we his a dip in the road, it got bent. Another item for the repair list when we get home.
The creature sighting of the day was pair of eagles in a nest on top of one of the power poles. If you look carefully you can see them sometimes.
It was early enough in the day to get somewhere down the road so we headed for Browning. We filled there and then explored our options. The choice was Choteau Montana. This is plains country again so lots of big grain and hay fields. There are more cattle here however. There are also some oil wells which for the most part are pumping.
Spoffords Travel 