Day 31 - Road to the Sun

We left Pincher Creek heading south towards the US border and Glacier National Park. The weather was over cast with some light showers as we were driving. What a bummer as we sure would like sunny weather for visiting the park. We arrived in time to see a video on the park. Of course the highlight of this park is the Going-to-the-Sun Road. This is listed as one of the most beautiful roads in the world and was high on our list of activities on our trip.

Let me say right off that if you are in this area you MUST drive this road or take a ride in one of the cool looking park tour buses that will let you take all the pictures you want without having to worry about driving. The mountains are very large and ominous looking, so Dick was a little hesitant on taking the Model A’s over the top. I assured him the drive wouldn’t be any trouble for them. The other nice surprise was that the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day.

At first I was a little concerned the speed limit was 45 MPH, that turned out not to be a problem at all as the actual speed was less than that and there were so many turn outs for pictures. Our first turn out was a good one as when we parked everyone was taking pictures of a bear walking down by the water’s edge. Nan and Dick had cameras out and were snapping away. Fortunately the bear was at the bottom of very rocky cliff from our parking spot. In addition Edsel made friends with Nomad the Gnome from Minnesota. What a special day for them.


Our Model A’s were also a hit as every where we stopped people gathered around to take pictures. The reason we stopped so much was the scenery. Every turn revealed a new spectacular site. The only down side was there was considerable road work underway and the Model A’s got pretty dirty, on the other hand traffic moved slowly so we weren’t a hindrance to traffic flow. The Model A’s made it up and over Logan Pass (6646 ft) without any problems. It was all down hill from there on, now we just had to hope the brakes worked. They did.

I can’t tell you how many pictures Nan took, but it must have been a lot as I don’t think the camera was ever out of her hand. We did talk to Jack & Jo. It seems they were in the visitor center just after we headed out on the Road. Since larger RVs can’t do the road, they were going to take the classic bus ride the next day. We finished up the drive by having lunch at the Lake MacDonald Jammin Joe Cafe. We also decided to check out the very impressive lodge. We couldn't help taking a walk around and through the place. We even parked the Model A's in front for a picture. Those classic lodges are nice, too bad they get booked up so far in advance.





Leaving the park the first thing we needed was ice cream which we found at West Glacier entrance. Umm, that was good. Leaving West Glacier I headed east towards East Glacier. Later, talking with Dick, I realized that he was trying to get me to go a different direction, but his CB was not working. Our change in plans to do Yellowstone on the way home had me mixed up on routes on how we would head to Yellowstone. We did arrive in East Glacier and the selection of places to stay was slim. Dick suggested we try the historic Glacier Park Lodge. I was not hopeful as these places fill up long in advance. Well, guess what, they had two rooms and we were home for the night. What a surprise. These old hotels were built at a time when only the rich could afford to stay here. It was a a beautiful place.

What an ending to a spectacular day of Model A’ing.