Day 15 Windermere to Bozeman

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Day 15 July18
Windermere to Bozeman
When we turned on the car it was great to see we were back in the range navigation system. We had to rely just on MAPS for the last couple of day. The first stop back in the States was perfect. A duty free joint in Roosville, Montana (no relation to Hannah, girls) named The First and Last Chance Bar. It was about 10:00 in the morning and both patrons were already deep in their cups along with the bartender, who had a vicious little dog he said did not like anyone, except apparently the two of us. I think maybe it wanted to be rescued. We were also happy to see ice machines and big drink fountains in the first store across the border - a pump your own convenience/package store. There were a lot of liquor stores and bars all over Montana. We did, however miss the ubiquitous recycling containers in Canada, even in hotel rooms. I felt guilty tossing my water bottle in a trash can instead of a recycling bin. We headed for Glacier National Park. And it was beautiful. Except for the 133,000 acres burned in 2003 and all the damage done by the bark beetles. They are devastating the trees in Ruidoso and we found their handiwork everywhere we went. They were even featured at the British Columbia Museum of Natural History for the damage they are doing to our trees everywhere.
Then there were the glaciers. Most have melted and they predict they will all be gone by 2030. There were 27 left and 790 lakes. We saw lots of waterfalls and beautiful snow covered peaks. There were glaciers trying to cross the road in places. In Glacier as opposed to Banff and Jasper we went up among the peaks of the mountains. In Banff and Jasper we drove around the bottoms of the mountains. The highest we reached in Glacier was just over 6,000 feet. In both parks the peaks were about 10,000 to 12,000 feet. When we compared it to Ruidoso we really weren’t that impressed since our house there is at 7,000 feet and Sierra Blanc, the mountain we see out the window, is at 12,004. But for some reason you feel higher at the 2 parks. We crossed the park in the only we could, on Going-To-The-Sun Road. Well worth the drive. Leaving the park we chose a road through the Blackfeet Reservation, bad choice - but the only one. Lots of burnt trees, very winding and in very bad shape. We quickly got off of it and made a bee line to Helena, Montana where we had dinner at a really nice steakhouse in a brand new development downtown in what appeared to have been the old rail and cattle yard district. It was not unlike the Galleria in Bee Caves, complete with a Cinemark theater. We then drove on into Bozeman, Montana for the night and stayed in a very nice Best Western that ended with a beautiful sunset right out of window. We logged about 415 miles that day. The next morning we dawdled around Bozeman, stopped at Wal-Mart for a few supplies and had breakfast at a colorful little hash house on the main drag appropriately named the Western Café. We finally hit the road for Cody and the wild west show a little after 10:00 in the morning. It was good.

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