Day 82 Montana
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
89
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Great Falls,
Montana,
United States
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Today we take out time to become mobile, heading into the Glacier National Park, the object is to view Lake McDonald (a great picture of this hangs in the US Consulate in Sydney) then through the park to head south towards Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park. Before we run today's report we would like to mention about a small town called Libby naming itself as the City of Eagles, the displays and carvings of Eagles are truly outstanding.
All goes well and we find the entrance to the park, no cost because of the early investment of the National Park Pass, (gee another "Saving of $25") the very nice ranger in his Yogi bear hat ( Rick is being a cry baby and wants a hat like that!) explains in "Rapid Fire American" some words Rick asked nicely, to be repeated slowly.
Understanding dawned! The Castle is too long to travel To The Sun highway, Hey don't you realize that this Castle has travelled to Alaska and back <including the Top of the World Highway. Our choice is to go to around 16 miles in and hop on a shuttle bus. Apparently the road is very sharp and rock over hangs of only 10 ft in places.
Oh well we came to see the Lake and we did.
We set sail to go around the other road that skirts the bottom of the park aiming south towards Yellowstone.
We hit the real Montana in the story books, rolling hills and large paddocks with cattle (not a lot to be seen from highway) and large tracts of wheat.
We set our destination if possible to Great Falls, (we made it! Of course J )
At a rest area Karon decided to have a go at driving The Castle (how brave is this girl?) The road to this point and been wide and reasonably straight with no hidden rough bits.
Well within a couple of miles of Our Brave Lass taking the wheel, the road narrowed and became twisting and winding, "Go Girl!"
The boys are real proud of her she did extremely well and Rick as co-pilot didn't apply his brake as much as could be expected and Earnie had a good hold on the bale with his white knuckles showing but didn't put holes in the table. No just kidding everyone, the section Karon Managed was not a good one for a novice to take on with the narrow and twisty bits, but she did us proud and we have also told her as much.
We made good time and arrived at the KOA in time to have a washing turn, a relax and read as well as watch a DVD, (Message in a Bottle, another $5 special from Walmart).
Comments
The Castle
Go Karon! You were very brave to drive The Castle. Especially when the road deteriated. Lake McDonald looks as good as when we saw the picture in the US Consulate. It is so hard to believe that waterfalls can be so different. They have their own characteristics and these falls are certainly a lot tamer that The Athabasca Waterfall and the Maligne Falls.
Marian