Riding through Glacier National Park

 We did it! Wildfires in Jasper, Alberta dashed our plans to ride through the Canadian Rockies, and the air quality has been moderate at best with hazy, smoky skies the past few days so we waited until yesterday to make the final decision - it's a go to experience the Going to the Sun Road through Glacier National Park. 

We left the lovely Coffey House bed and breakfast in Choteau, MT at 7:30am, headed north on US 89.

US 89 north goes through wide open fields, entering the 1.5 million acre Blackfeet Nation just north of the intersection with Montana Highway 44. The Blackfeet Nation borders the eastern edge of Glacier National Park and Canada to the north.

As we rode further north, we started to see the Rocky Mountains in Glacier National Park in front of us.

Although the scenery was beautiful, the road (freshly paved in many sections) was smooth, and we saw very little traffic - the winds from the west were relentless, buffeting us from the side. When we saw a road sign warning about strong crosswinds, we thought - how much worse can get it? It got worse.

Luckily once we turned off US 89 through the St. Mary's entrance into Glacier National Park and were now officially on the Going to the Sun Road the mountains blocked much of the wind. We usually like to ride fast, but took our time today so that we could take in the amazing views.

Riding along 10-mile long St. Mary Lake was a fantastic introduction to Glacier: almost no traffic and plenty of opportunities to stop at a pull-off to really take in the pockets of snow and glaciers - and take photos of the BMW!

We started climbing toward the Logan Pass Visitor Center, at 6646' the highest point on the Going to the Sun Road. We were thankful there were several parking spots just for motorcycles because otherwise the parking lot was full and people were parking on the road then walking up to the visitor center.

The west side of Going to the Sun road is much steeper than the east side, plus the road is right on the edge of sheer cliffs. It took 23 years to build this road, and once you ride along it you'll understand why - it's an amazing engineering feat.

We were disappointed that there was no motorcycle parking, and no open parking spots at all, at Avalanche Creek where we had hoped to walk the Trail of the Cedars. It's impossible to hike wearing motorcycle boots, and this trail is a raised boardwalk that is wheelchair accessible - perfect for motorcyclists. We opted instead to stop at two different turn offs along McDonald Creek that required minimal walking on the trails.

Luckily we were able to find parking at the Lake McDonald Lodge, built in 1913. We enjoyed lunch in the dining room and then walked along the rocky beach along the lake in front of the lodge.

The water is absolutely clear - the rocks in the front of this photo are under water. The lake, and in fact this entire valley, were carved by glaciers.

We had only 10 short miles left on our ride through the park before we turned onto US 2 heading west toward Hungry Horse where we are spending the night. We had originally planned to ride through Glacier in 2020, but the eastern entrance was closed during the pandemic. This year everything is open and even with hundreds of wildfires in the West, we enjoyed a day without smoky skies in one of the most beautiful spots in the world.