KALISPELL, MT TO CALGARY, AB May 5, 2009

This morning we got an early start, well for us we got an early start as we were packed up and ready to go at 10AM. We had to go to Lowes to return something and low and behold there was a Starbucks next door, so after stocking up we headed for Glazier National Park which was about 40 miles away. We continued up Hwy 93 to Montana Road 40 which turned into Hwy 2 which lead us right to the park.














When we got to the park we realized that the road that goes right through was closed and would not open to June. We thought it was because they had just been dumped on with 3 feet of snow but we were told they do not open until June every year. We were able to go into the park for about 16 miles and I am glad we did.

Shortly after entering the park we saw the first of many deer.














At about the ten mile marker we came to MacDonalds Lodge but it was not open and we almost turned around at that point, but we decided to go on. It was a good thing as the last 5 miles were the most spectacular. The main focal point was MacDonald Lake which is surrounded by moutains and is fed by many springs and the MacDonald River.





MacDonald Lake













MacDonald River where it flows into
MacDonald Lake.






MacDonald River

After leaving the park we stopped for a late lunch and then headed out on Hwy # 2 which followed the park bountry completely around the south end of the park. We had planned to follow Hwy 2 until we reached Hwy 49 which would take us up the eastern side of the park to a town called St. Marys. However when we got to Hwy 49 we were not allowed to take the truck and camper on the highway, nothing over 21 feet long or 8 feet wide were allowed. We are 29 feet with the bike rakes. Therefore we had to keep on east on Hwy 2 until we met Hwy 89 which ran north west back to St. Marys. We followed this road for 35 miles back over the mountains and it was quite a ride. It was a very narrow road with no shoulders and a lot of the turns were posted at 25 mph. Then to make matter worse it started to snow and you can see by the picture below that there was already a lot of snow. It made me homesick. Not.

We finally made it to St. Marys only to find out the only gas station was closed so we headed up to Babb to get gas. The gas station there was closed so we decided to head for Canada as we know Cardston would have gas stations and I was funning on fumes. Fortunately we were able to get through customs quickly (we lied about everything ) and got to Cardston before we ran out of gas. We were back in Canada.

We had planned to stop in Fort Mcleod for the night but it was so windy there that we decided to push on to Calgary and we arrived around 9PM. We will be here for two nights and we are meeting my brother Pat for dinner on Wednesday.