Frau Kathy's Travel Blog: Western Trip #2 Day 5: To Glacier National Park, Montana-July 12, 2019

Although it was a bit noisy in the early morning, I had a better night's sleep that in Estes Park. We had a long day of driving ahead of us and no diversions to break it up. So, we were up at 7:30 and off to breakfast at 8:05. There was a nice variety of food and I opted for oatmeal as my main course. I was very happy that they had bananas. I don't buy them often at home, because the price seems too high. We sat at a high table and read the local paper while eating.

We loaded the car and checked out at 8:55, before walking across the side street next to the hotel to the Albertsons. We needed breakfast supplies for the next two days and I'd even brought the bag that we'd bought in the Albertsons in Kalispell, Montana two years ago. We planned to buy bagels later, so we just needed a few things to go with them. When we were crossing back to the hotel, some people approached us about buying something, but we turned them down and they did not follow us into the parking lot.
At 9:18, with the odometer reading 42442 and a temperature of 78 degrees, we headed west. We had to trick the GPS, because it wanted to send us through Glacier National Park from the east to reach Apgar Village on the western side of the park. I really did not want to drive through the park and we didn't want to see it this way. So, we told it to get us to Butte and we would change the destination once we got that far.
J found us a good radio station and settled in to work on the wine glass charms that were to be table gifts at her sister's wedding in November. We needed her to get as many finished as possible, so that she could hand them off to me for finishing before we went home. Besides, she doesn't drive much and I didn't want to subject her to much more than highway, if it came to it.
At 10:22 (42513), we pulled into a rest area. It turned out to be an educational stop, with very informative signs. We learned about geology, the death of the guy Bozeman's named after, cattle drives, and the Crazy Mountains.

I-90 is not an exciting road, but minutes after we were back on it at 10:35, J got some nice shots of the mountains.

Bozeman seemed like a reasonable choice for gas. We got off at Exit 306 at 11:37 (42587) and very quickly recognized the area from having stopped here two years ago to visit the terrific Museum of the Rockies. We had to go to a Conoco, because there was no Shell around. We got 7.25 gallons @$2.759 for a total of $20. At 11:44, we were on our way.
J scanned Google maps for the road ahead of to double check that where we wanted to get lunch was indeed still there. That it was. At 12:18 (42620), at Exit 274 Three Forks, we pulled in Wheat Montana's lot. This was not a regular restaurant, but rather its main office and factory. They also happened to have a bakery and deli. We'd passed it on our way to Helena two years ago, but we'd already eaten.
Today, the place was packed! We had to take turns holding a table. When I was to get in the incredible line, I grabbed a bag of whole wheat bagels ($3.25)and wild huckleberry jam($4.50) for our breakfasts. For lunch, I got a Radersburg sandwich, which was ham, provolone, tomato, lettuce, honey dijon, and mayo on a healthy loaf, for $8.79, a Bear Claw for $3, and a Black Cherry soda. This is a deli, so the sandwich came with chips and a dill pickle. Then, J got her meal of a Big Rancher sandwich, which was roast beef, cheddar, tomato, lettuce, dijon and mayo on a healthy loaf, a chocolate chip muffin for $3, and a soda. The sandwiches were delicious and we really enjoyed both desserts. We remembered to grab a plastic knife for the jam and spoons for the fruit cups we had.

With our bodies refueled, we were on the road at 1:23. This was a part of I-90 that we didn't experience last time, because when we left Helena, we went down to Butte. At 1:30, we noticed that the temperature was 80 degrees. This is what the roadside looked like:

That last photo is of an open-pit mine.
The dullness of the landscape was not doing me any favors. I have fibromyalgia and take 150 mg of Lyrica twice a day. One or the other of those, or even both, can cause me to get sleepy. I notice myself dozing off on the exercise bike sometimes, just to show you what it is like. Now, I felt it coming on. Luckily, we found a parking area to pull into at 2:00 (42660). I put down all the windows, reclined my seat, and told J to wake me in a half hour, if I didn't do it on my own. I proceeded to "pass out"; I don't just fall gently to sleep in this situation. A half hour is all I need, really. More than that tends to make me feel lousy. J continued doing needlework.
I woke on my own and we were back on the road with me feeling much better at 2:29. At 2:52, we had a nice view of Mt. Powell, followed by sprinkles.

To get to Glacier, we had to go around Flathead Lake. We'd gone up the west side last time, so obviously the east through Flathead National Forest was the choice this time. We got off of I-90 at Garrison and headed northeast on US Rte. 12. At Avon, we went northwest on Rte. 141 and then took a left onto Rte. 200. We had some nice views along the way, but we weren't able to photograph anything. At 4:22 (42789) in Clearwater, we took advantage of a handy rest stop at the junction with Rte.83, before heading up that new road at 4:30. J had put all of those roads on the Excel sheet we used to plan the trip, by the way. We plan.
The drive was quite nice, as long as there weren't pokey drivers ahead of us. There wasn't much to photograph out J's side, but the views we got of Swan Lake were nice and the forest was pleasant. Due to the advancing hour, it never seemed practical to stop to take photos. Plus, there were no helpful rest areas along the road.
At 6:07, near Kalispell, we saw fields of yellow. I thought I knew what it was and J googled it to confirm it- rapeseed. Really looked lovely.
Finally, at 6:20 ( 42902), near Hungry Horse, I pulled into the Conoco on Rte 2 and could stretch my legs by getting gas. The car took 10.521 gallons @$2.829 for a total of $29.76. We were back on the road at 6:26, but at 6:34 (42906), we reached our planned dinner stop, The Huckleberry Patch, which we were familiar with from the previous trip. It is a combination of souvenir shop and restaurant.
You place your order at the counter, and eventually someone brings it out. It's not fancy, but it tastes pretty good. I got the Highline Chicken Wrap for $9.95 and a bottle of Flathead Lake Gourmet Soda- Huckleberry (of course) for $2.95. I added a $1 tip, but the service turned out to be so monumentally slow, that I regretted it. J got the Great Northern BBQ Sandwich for $9.95 and a fountain soda.
The service was so slow, that J and I took turns going out to the shop to buy the huckleberry-flavored gifts that we wanted!

It was 7:43, before we were on our way again. At 7:52, we passed under the Gateway to Glacier bridge and at 7:59 (42917), I showed my National Parks Senior Pass to the guard, who gave us our map and we entered Glacier National Park.

We made our way to Apgar Village and reached the office at 7:58 (42918). I parked and went in to check us in, as this was my reservation. We were assigned Room 41 in the motel part, which was along the stream. I was able to park outside our door, which made unloading a lot easier. We had stayed in cabins last time, with my husband and me having a kitchen to do breakfast easier. However, the cabins were terribly expensive this time and I thought we could get by with ice to keep cold what needed to be cold. This room was about the size of our cabin's main room. There were two beds and J told me to take the larger one. (This turned out to be good, because there was an outlet at the head of the bed and I could just put my CPAP machine on the bed next to me.) We had a large picture window overlooking the stream and a small bathroom with a tiny shower.

Once unloaded, we went outside for a bit of a look-around. This far north, the sun would be up much later. We passed a Columbia Ground Squirrel on our way. We took photos of the aforementioned stream, which runs out of Lake McDonald, as well as the moon above the trees. We also took pictures of the beautiful,clear, serene lake, while ignoring the loud children playing int the glacier-fed water further down the beach. Thanks to my camera's zoom, I was able to take photos of what remained of trees from a previous fire, as well as the mountains way down the lake. Even in July, there was snow on those mountains. We walked along the shore of the stream and come up on the other end of the motel, which let me photograph our window. We went in for the night around 9.