P to Q: Malta, MT to McGregor Lake, MT

8.9.10

We woke up by 6:30am and headed over to the Great Northern Hotel for breakfast. They were apparently the best place to eat in town, and weren't open the night before. Overall it was very tasty and a good value, but Max's chicken fried steak didn't taste just right. We headed to Havre (pronounced, Hav-ver) for an oil change and then to Cut Bank, MT for a delicious deli sandwich. We drove the last 100 or so miles to the eastern entrance to Glacier National Park and arrived in the early afternoon. We hoped that being there on a Monday would mean less people, but the Going-to-the-Sun-Road was packed, aggravated by the ongoing road construction. Perhaps that's what to be expected of such a popular park that is open for only about four months each year to vehicle traffic. The views along the windy, cliff-hugging road were spectacular. We stopped to view one of the remaining glaciers (act fast - they probably will all be gone in ten to twenty years) and to pose with the apparently tame mountain goats that like to eat concrete. We tried to hike for a little bit, but Emily got scared off by the signs warning us of grizzly bear attacks and one of the numerous hiker's response to our question, "Seen any bears?" - "Yes, three." Eek. The afternoon we spent driving through only made us want to get bear spray and come back to camp for a month. It was beautiful. We continued out of the park to join back up with US 2 and drove to Kalispell for a pizza dinner at the crowded, loud, but homey Moose's Saloon. It was getting late, so we chose a camp spot in the Kootenai National Forest on McGregor Lake, 32 miles west of Kalispell. For $12 we had a nice quiet spot, free firewood, and a camp host who warmly welcomed us with the news that the recently escaped fugitives (apparently the news media had been calling "Bonnie and Clyde") were spotted in the region and we should probably keep our doors locked. Maybe that's better than grizzlies.

Links: Smokehouse Deli, Glacier National Park, Moose's Saloon, McGregor Lake, "Bonnie and Clyde"

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