Relying on the kind stranger’s advice from the day before, we decided to take a road less travelled to get to West Glacier. He said it was a long two lane twisty road that ran along the base of the mountains and followed alongside the river. We thought that sounded just about fantastic! So, we woke up early, had our coffee, found a do-it-yourself car wash, just to get some of the bugs off of the Ford and then we packed up the airstream and headed out!
And we immediately turned the wrong way. LOL 😆
After a few very terse, yet loving, comments between us, we took a deep breath, made a quick u turn through a gas station, and happy happy, off we go. It happens. It actually happens to us pretty often because Ben likes the GPS always oriented to North (boring and lame!) and Ann likes to live on the edge of her seat and have the GPS oriented in the direction we’re traveling (a little more chaotic but FUN!).
The stranger was absolutely spot on. We made our way through Montana to reach highway 83 and getting there was an amazing drive in and of itself, with neat little towns nestled in narrow valleys with a range of steep rocky hills in the far distance on both sides. It was not very heavily trafficked either, so we were under no pressure to go any faster than deemed safe for the road conditions or the sharpness of the curves we navigated. The road to 83 was just an incredible drive!
Then, we turned on to 83.
The river seemed to widen and the hills closed in comfortably on both sides of the heavily wooded valley, as we started working our way north on this quiet highway. The GPS indicated we had about 93 more miles until departing 83 for roads beyond.
As we looked at the GPS map, we saw that we were approaching a series of lakes, all formed by the river that had cut and continued to cut the very valley we were in.
As we approached the first lake on the left side on the road from us, it just seemed to open wider and wider as we started passing along its southern outlet. It was very dark, cold, glassy water, without a ripple on its surface. The trees on the steep banks, on both sides, were almost all evergreens, lush, densely packed, ranging through all shades of green, from very light to so dark as to be almost brown. The trees marched right up to the waters edge, almost interrupted.
As we passed by what seemed like a mile of beautiful lake, we reached the northern end, and it tapered to a marshy area and the road returned to being heavily wooded on both sides. We were blown away by how private and quiet this area seems. We observed a few side roads as we had passed by the lake, that obviously led to private residences. Just a beautiful setting.
And then we passed another lake, even larger and wider than the first. This one had a few houses on the slowly widening, slowly smoothing out shoreline, and the highway started moving away from the lakeshore slightly as well. These were just gorgeous homes, with dark siding and earth toned or darker roofs, fitting very well into the woods and greens that surrounded them.
We continued to drive north, and we continued passing these beautiful lakes, either still sharing a shoreline only with densely packed woods, or sometimes hosting one, two, or in the case of larger lakes, multiple cabins, large home compounds, marinas and restaurants. By far, the one that just made our jaws drop was the only one like it that we passed.
We came a round a corner on a fairly narrow section of road, and we encountered another deep dark lake. This one had a small island on it. Maybe 1/2 acre island. And on that 1/2 acre island in the middle of this quiet lake was a monstrous house. It fit right in to the heavily wooded island, but it looked like it took up at least half of the island!
As we got closer, it got bigger and bigger and we noticed there was no bridge, only boat docks. And across from the island was a smaller version of the same house on the shore, with a matching set of boat docks. Just an amazing setup. And then it was behind us and we carried on, enjoying the views.
We finally found a pull off so we could grab a quick bite to eat, and make sure we didn’t get to the campground before the 3 pm check in, (made that mistake back in Goodland KS, of all places, where we got there two hours early and they charged us $10). This is just a slice of what we saw. Such a cool road.
Eventually, we reached the northern end of 83 (having driven yet another awesome highway, end to end, on this trip), and continued on to our campsite in West Glacier, just outside of the national park.
Over the past few years, we’ve stayed at a bunch of KOA’s and we’ve seen lots of different setups, from the bare bones “KOA,” where there’s nothing to do but get a fitful nap next to the interstate (they’re usually about to lose their KOA status), then there’s the “KOA Journey,” which are nice, well organized, and with enough amenities to get you on to your next destination, and then we have the KOA Holidays, which typically are found in nicer settings, further from the highway, with wider lots, nicer common areas, and usually an bit more privacy. This is typically as fancy as we go. BUT, this was going to be a new experience for us, as we’re staying at a “KOA Resort” this time around. Ooh la-la!! Aren’t we feeling bougie today?! Does Ben need to have a tie and sport coat to check in? Are women allowed to wear hiking pants to brunch?
We were nervous, but getting a little more excited as we meandered down the long winding road to the main entrance. It was at the main gate that we spied the maintenance guy picking his nose, just before he excitedly greeted us with a wave. It was at that point we relaxed a little and figured out that the tone was a little bit less formal than we had feared. Ben took a deep breath, relieved to know that he was still going to be able to pee in the woods surrounding our campsite. Resort just meant you “should” put shorts or pants on before you exit the camper to pee in the woods. It would take a little reminding for Ben, but those kind of “resort rules,” we could handle.
Once through the gates, we pulled in to a really cool, well maintained check-in area. We were then led by golf cart through a winding, well landscaped, heavily wooded little set of neighborhoods of campsites, populated by everything from pop up campers to 60’ diesel class A’s, with two stories and six slide outs, and everything in between. We reached the back corner of the campground, through some rows of cabins and backed in to perhaps the nicest campsite in which we have stayed! We honestly didn’t believe the oohing and awwing of the front desk ladies when they all told us out campsite was their favorite campsite. Once we saw it, we understood why.
This place is really nice! Our campsite is really private and we were able to open up all of the curtains without having to make direct eye contact with everyone in the park. It really doesn’t feel cramped in here with the curtains closed. Its more cozy by far.
But it sure was nice to open the curtains up today!
After running to the park, grabbing a map and getting some advice from a very helpful ranger at the visitor center, we returned to the airstream, set up the first campfire we have been able to have since we first got to Denver, and settled in to some campfire time. Just behind the edge of the campfire area, where we were sitting, was a good sized, rectangular, open field, about the size of a soccer field, lined on two adjacent sides by about 7 campers all backed up to the field, a fairly dense section of woods on the third side, and pretty much just our campsite on the fourth side.
While Ben was on the phone with his folks, there was a large chocolate lab from one of the other campsites, just running around the field, tongue flapping and tail wagging ferociously, as he soaked up the smells and the freedom to just run. He was having a blast! Wasn’t going near any of the other campers, just to his family and then back to the open field. Ben could see most of what happened on the field, but Ann’s back was to it, so it was just noise in the background for her, while we sat and enjoyed the crackling hot fire.
While Ann was reading, the big lab decided to explore our end of the field, and came running in a long, wide arc that would bring him right by the wooded section and on to our edge of the open area. Ben saw this arc start and saw where the big, huffing, thundering dog was headed. Ben was just getting ready to intervene, in case the lab was a little too excited. Suddenly, the lab thundered up behind Ann, breathing heavily and pushing through small branches and tall grasses, like a wild animal seeking it’s prey.
Ben tensed up a bit, but Ann couldn’t see what was happening. She could only hear the heavy wet breathing and crashing branches behind her, and she could only see Ben’s body language tense, so Ben got to watch Ann’s eyes open wider than they had ever opened before, as she absolutely, in that one half second, knew, that there was a bear running up right behind her!
Then the lab barreled past Ann on her right and she was able to see the overzealous canine make the final turn in his arc, as he happily headed back to its family.
Ten minutes later, after Ben was able to breathe again, from laughing so hard, we decided that maybe we had been seeing too many scary bear signs and maybe we should just hit the sack. Still, made for a funny story, according to Ben. 🙄
Tomorrow is our first full day in Glacier, and although the Going to the Sun road is still closed due to snow and ice up there, a fact Ann was not aware of before Ben blabbed it, we are planning to do a few hikes and see what we can see!
TaterTotTales 