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.

Scenic rural roads in central Montana

 We left Bozeman, MT mid-morning after spending the weekend with our youngest son, heading toward Glacier National Park. This is our first time on the BMW in this part of Montana, and it was a gorgeous ride on gently curving, 2-lane paved roads through mountains, forests, and acres of wheat as far as we could see. Unfortunately the skies are still hazy from wildfire smoke but not nearly as bad as two days ago.

We left Bozeman riding northeast on Montana Highway 86 through the Bridger Mountains, named after Jim Bridger, a famous trapper and Army scout from the late 1800's.

Montana Highway 86 ends at US 89 just north of Wilsall, MT and we followed 89 north the rest of the day. 

As we passed through fields of freshly mown hay and wheat, we started noticing bald eagles perched on top of telephone poles, watching us as we rode by. There are very few trees in this area and the eagles sought out the highest perches available.

We stopped in White Sulphur Springs for lunch, and happened into the Jawbone which was serving a delicious Sunday brunch - not what we expected in this small western town.

A few miles north at the junction with US 12, US 89 is now the Kings Hill Scenic Byway, winding through the Lewis and Clark National Forest. 

US 89 joins with US 87 and skirts Great Falls, and once we were out of the city traffic we once again rode on 2-lane roads with almost no traffic.

Our stop for tonight is the lovely Coffey House Bed and Breakfast in Choteau Montana where the prairie meets the Rocky Mountains. Tomorrow we plan to ride through Glacier National Park on the Going to the Sun road - hopefully the smoky skies from hundreds of wildfires in the West will continue to improve and we'll have a beautiful day to experience Glacier.

Smoky skies

 We started off the day under clear skies with temperatures in the mid-50's which meant I wore all of the liners to my motorcycle gear to stay warm.

Instead of taking interstates from Missoula to Bozeman, our destination for the weekend, we opted for the more scenic route starting east on Montana Hwy 200. We rode through valleys with views of the mountains to both the north and south, sometimes through forested hills and other times past fields planted with corn, wheat and hay.

We turned south on Montana Hwy 141 and crossed the Blackfoot River. We crossed many smaller creeks and streams and almost everywhere saw signs pointing out fishing access points.

Hwy 141 passes by Nevada Lake, created with an earth dam in 1938.

In Avon we turned east on US 12 and climbed up 6,320' MacDonald Pass on the Continental Divide. The skies had been clear until we started down the eastern side of the pass, and for the rest of the ride it was so smoky from hundreds of wildfires in Canada that we could barely see outlines of mountains.

US 12 skirts Helena and then joins with US 287 heading south, crossing the Missouri River which starts near Three Forks Montana and ends at the Mississippi River. At 2,341 miles, it's the longest river in the United States.

We continued south on US 287 to Townsend, then diverted to a series of county roads, once again taking the scenic route into Bozeman instead of the interstate. Even though we knew there were towering mountain peaks surrounding Bozeman, we could see none of them due to the increasingly smoky skies.

We'll stay in Bozeman through the weekend with our youngest son and then based on weather and air quality conditions, decide which direction is next.

Mountains and water in Idaho and Montana

 We spent yesterday in Moscow, Idaho, home of the University of Idaho. Just about every storefront in town has a sign supporting the university which has five times the number of employees compared to any other employer in the city. We stayed at the friendly and convenient Monarch Motel just one block away from the downtown.

Today we were back on the motorcycle riding 300 miles on a longer and more scenic route to Missoula, MT. We rarely take the fastest, most direct route and especially not when interstate highways are required.

We rode north on US 95 out of Moscow through the Palouse, a large region in Washington and Idaho covered with steep rolling hills planted primarily with wheat.

We wound through several small towns, often with only 200 or fewer residents, until we rode around the outskirts of Coeur d'Alene where the 2-lane highway became a busy 4-lane peppered with stoplights. After a few miles we left the city behind and enjoyed less traffic on a 2-lane highway that wound through a valley in the Selkirk Mountains. 

In Sandpoint, ID we crossed the western part of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho's largest (43 miles long with 111 miles of shoreline) and deepest (1158' - 5th deepest lake in the United States).

After crossing the lake we turned east on Idaho 200 which hugs the eastern edge of the Pend Oreille lakeshore for several miles, then follows the Clark Fork River into Montana.

Now called Montana Highway 200, the 2-lane road winds through forests with views of the Coeur d'Alene Mountains to the southwest. 

We stopped for lunch at the Lakeside Motel and Resort in Trout Creek, not expecting the lovely patio at the back of the motel with shade trees and a lush green lawn as we looked out over the Clark Fork River.

We didn't ride over any mountain passes or encounter hairpin turns and twisties, and instead traveled through a stunning part of northeastern Idaho and western Montana.

Following Lewis and Clark

 We've come across sections of the route taken by Lewis and Clark in 1804-1805 as they explored the vast area of the Louisiana Purchase. Today we followed much of their route from Montana west through Idaho as they headed toward the Pacific Ocean. US Route 12, is known as the Lewis and Clark Highway, and in Idaho it's also the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway.

We started today's ride in Hamilton, MT, heading north on US 93, a 4-lane, busy highway in the Bitterroot Valley for about 30 miles until we turned north on US 12.

We started climbing through open fields and then heavily forested Bitterroot Range.

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Our highest point for today came at 5233' Lolo Pass where we crossed from Montana into Idaho. We stopped at the visitor center - closed today but the bathrooms were open - for a quick snack and drink of water, and enjoyed chatting with a couple from Iowa riding their motorcycle.

I missed taking a photo of a large sign that proclaimed winding mountain roads for the next 99 miles. All that was missing from the sign was a photo of an extremely happy couple zooming through the canyon on their motorcycle!

This area is the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest which covers 4 million acres in north-central Idaho. Much of this area is protected wilderness, and for most of the 99 miles we saw very little traffic as we descended down from Lolo Pass.

US 12 twists and winds following the Lochsa River, one of the rivers included as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968. 

 

We stopped for lunch at Kooskia at 1293' elevation - we had dropped almost 4000' over 99 miles. The Selway River joins the Lochsa River at Kooskia, forming the Clearwater River.

US 12 continues along the wide yet still winding Clearwater River, which Lewis and Clark paddled in dugout canoes. The elevation dropped to 864' - that is about 7000' lower than our home in Southwest Colorado.

The last part of today's ride took us away from rivers as we headed north on Idaho Route 3. The temperature was over 90 degrees and we decided to stop at the first gas station we saw for a drink of cold water - and much to our delight found ourselves at the Juliaetta Market which featured huckleberry ice cream. We saw inside the air conditioned market chatting with the friendly woman working there while we cooled off. Refreshed, we rode through the huge, rolling hills of the Palouse.

Our last turn was onto Idaho Route 99 which wound through the wheat fields of the Palouse into Moscow, our stop for tonight.

Today was another beautiful, memorable day on the BMW through mountains, along rivers, and into rolling agricultural lands crossed 220 years ago by Lewis and Clark. Much of the area hasn't changed much during those centuries and I like to believe that it will stay this way for the next few centuries for others to enjoy.