“Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures.” – quote on the back of a neighbor’s RV in Glacier Meadow
Monday (7/1) – Nine Mile Falls, WA
This was our second day of travel on our way to the Glacier National Park area. We left Rufus, OR, and arrived at the Nine Mile Recreation Area (part of Riverside State Park near Spokane) in the early evening. No one was in the office to greet us, but there was a site list, so we went to site 5 ($53 per night, water & electric only) and settled in.
Sometimes when you are parking the trailer you have an audience, and the couple on the hill behind us were watching from their camp chairs as Dave backed the trailer into place. Later that evening, we learned that the couple, Denise and Carl, were from Juno Beach, FL, and were in the middle of a six-month road trip. We sat by the river with them and swapped travel tips, and while we were there we had a truly spectacular sunset over the river. A bald eagle flew by, too!
Tuesday-Thursday (7/2-4) – Essex, MT
It was another all-day drive to reach Glacier Meadow RV Park. For the first two nights we had a partial hookup wooded spot ($44 per night) that we really liked, but we had to move on the third night. Originally we were supposed to move to the open meadow where there are no hookups at all, but a full hookup pull-through spot became available. If it weren’t so cold, the meadow would have been fine, but we were glad to have the spot. In fact, we were glad to get any spot at all! Usually we do fine planning a week or 10 days ahead, but Glacier National Park is a very popular destination, and it took me a few hours of computer time to find an RV park with an opening. (And I could find no openings at all in the Yellowstone/Grand Teton area, which is why we are saving those for another trip.)
The couple who ran the park were very friendly, and the man told me that in that part of Montana there are only 69 days between frosts. Brrr.
The morning of the 3rd we woke up at 5:30 so that we could get to the St. Mary entrance (eastern side) of Glacier as early as possible. On our way we stopped in Babb, a little town on the Blackfeet Reservation, where there was a lovely park with views of St. Mary Lake and surrounding mountains.
We arrived in the park at 8:15 and took the Going-to-the-Sun Road across the park. It’s almost 50 miles with many overlooks, so it took us about 3 hours or so. Unfortunately it was pretty well fogged in and rainy, but even so the views were pretty spectacular. But I know we were missing the real jaw-dropping beauty of the park, which means we’ll have to come back!
As we were stopped at various overlooks, we met some other Virginians from Winchester (who used to live in Leesburg!) and Martinsville. Small world indeed.
After we crossed the entire length of Going-to-the-Sun Road, we came home for a nap and went out again at 7:30, this time to Two Medicine upper and lower lakes.
On July 4th we needed to move the trailer by 11, and we couldn’t move it until the previous occupant vacated, so we didn’t get on the road until 10:30. We had decided to visit the Many Glacier portion of the park, which was a two-hour drive. When we arrived, we discovered that it was closed because all the parking lots were full. We decided to wait, but first we needed to find a place to pee. Yes, this is an issue when you’re hours away from civilization! We found a construction site near the beginning of the park road and drove up there, using the old between-the-car-doors trick. It’s been a loooong time since I’ve done that, I can tell you.
We had a fabulous view while we waited for two hours in the truck, eating our lunch and reading, but after that we decided to call it a day. What had been a beautiful blue-sky day was turning dark with clouds, and rain was moving in. And then, just as we reached the end of the park road, a ranger pulled up in his truck and turned the sign to open! So we had to go back. After all that waiting, it was a bit of a letdown, as we couldn’t see much with all the cloud cover. After a visit to a proper bathroom and the general store, we headed home.
All was not lost, however. The drive to and from Many Glacier was beautiful: a ribbon of road through green rolling prairies with the peaks of Glacier National Park gleaming in the distance. There was also a Blackfeet bison reserve along the side of the highway.
That night we relaxed with a movie (Casablanca, I believe) and went outside around 10 when it was really getting dark. Somewhere in the distance there was a modest fireworks display, and along with some of our fellow campers we silently watched, each lost in our own Independence Day thoughts.
Friday (7/5) – Clancy, MT
After a full day of driving, we arrived at the Alhambra RV Park, which was right off the highway. Our site ($50, full hookup) was barely long enough for us, but we made it. This was the first place we had really good WiFi on our entire trip! I thanked them for it.
Saturday (7/6) – Billings, MT
After another full day of driving (Montana is a huge state!), we arrived at the Billings Village RV Park, which was situated near an industrial park. Not very scenic, but it suited our purposes. We had a full hookup site for $50.
The next day we headed for Medora, ND, and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.