7/6 - Great Falls to West Glacier

The drive today was filled with masses of storm clouds.  Heading north on I-15 from Great Falls we could see numerous storms in every direction.  Just when we’d think we were running right into one the road would curve and we’d miss it.  We didn’t miss them all but did pretty well considering what was around us.

All the pictures are landscapes and storms.  No history today.  :-D

Storms and farmland on I-15 between Great Falls and Shelby, Montana.

I was just about to comment on how flat the land had become when we came upon this canyon-like terrain caused by the Marias River.  The Marias ends to the east at the Missouri River.  The confluence of the Marias and Missouri was one where Lewis and Clark had to decide which way to go in their quest to follow the Missouri to its source.  They chose the correct one, but one of them did explore the Marias on the return trip.

More lumpy grassland with a smattering of cattle.

We saw more farmland than grazing pastures.  The farmland appeared to be cereal crops, so we had breakfast being grown on one side with dinner-on-the-hoof grown on the other.

We went through Cut Bank whose name was very familiar to me.  I couldn’t remember why until I read that Cut Bank is frequently the coldest place in the lower 48 states.  We hear weather reports in the winter giving the temperature in Cut Bank for that very reason.  It’s at a high elevation with very dry winters.  When the jet stream sends its Arctic Clipper down from Canada, Cut Bank becomes absolutely frigid.  It can also get hot Chinook winds off the Rockies which suddenly raise the temperature.  Its record temps for January are -46 and +61…..quite a wide range. 

We stopped for a break at the 5213’ Marias Pass near the continental divide.  The railroad also uses this pass and we were passed by a very long train with single and double-stacked containers.  The temperature had dropped to 48 degrees with a stiff wind so it was a bit brisk, a very welcome change from the 95 degrees we had in Garryowen over the past weekend.

I said yesterday that we didn’t know what to expect in the way of ups and downs going over this pass.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that the approach to the pass had a very gradual increase in elevation (from about 3300 to 5213).  Coming down the western side to 3215’ was steeper but still nothing like the mountains at home.  The eastern, southern and northern approaches to Asheville are all much steeper than anything we’ve found here so far. 

The Middle Fork of the Flathead River which runs through West Glacier.  It looks like an excellent trout river.

After setting up here we went over to the West Glacier Visitor Center at the national park.  It didn’t have much in the way of displays.  Apparently the good displays and the video are in the St. Mary Visitor Center which is 50 miles away at the other end of the Going to the Sun Road.  We’ll do this road tomorrow and take advantage of the best weather forecast for three days here.

We’re staying at the West Glacier KOA which turns out to be the location of the recent grizzly bear attack which killed a mountain biker.  The attack was all over the news last week plus we also heard about it in Rapid City, SD.  What we didn’t hear was what caused the attack.  A ranger here told us the man was speeding down a trail on his mountain bike when he crashed right into a grizzly.  The bear turned on him and killed him.  It was a most unfortunate situation but the bear certainly shouldn’t be blamed for it.