Making good use of our National Park pass we leave Whitefish early to ride the short distance to Glacier National Park & 'The Road To The Sun'.
We stop in the park for breakfast close to Lake Macdonald with it's crystal clear water, the still early morning provides us some reflections of the mountains in the distance.
Stopping at Macdonald Falls you can see the scenic beauty of this park as the road starts to rise.
The road is more like a European mountain pass & you can enjoy the curves on the parts that are not too busy with traffic.
As we approach Logan Pass we reach the highest point of the road at just over 2000m, not that high really with the surrounding peaks reaching just over 3000m, it's nice however to be back in the mountains & time for a selfie.
The mountain goats like it here & seem to ignore the tourist, this family group just go about their own business next to the visitors centre.
From the Logan Pass it's all down hill to the park exit at Saint Mary which takes you straight into the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, the difference in the wealth between the two sides of the park is very stark.
Passing through Browning we ride to Choteau, it's easy to see where Montana gets it's wealth, the golden fields of wheat are regular sights & the iconic shape of the grain elevator is very common.
We pass several convoys of combine harvesters being moved from farm to farm & the dust clouds created during harvesting can be seen in all directions.
Choteau turns out to be a very attractive small town & the adjacent restaurant does great fruit pies, the Hotel is also one of the best we have stayed in.
A shorter journey the following day to Billings sets us up nicely for the visit to the Little Bighorn Battlefield, since 2003 this historic monument has begun to embrace both sides with this mural being part of the Indian Memorial that opened that year.
They now mark where some of the native warriors fell with red tombstones as well as remembering the horses that perished during the battle in 1876, more information on the National Memorial & the battle itself can be found here: http://www.nps.gov/libi/index.htm
General Ciuster is of course the name that everybody associates with this site, this is the location of his 'Last Stand' with the headstone marked in black marking where he fell.
Leaving Montana we now enter Wyoming to visit the iconic Devils Tower featured in the 1977 film 'Close Encounters of The Third Kind', I have to say I found this laccolith more impressive than I was expecting!
This was the first US National Monument established in 1906, of the 400,000 annual visitors about 1% climb the tower, you can see one here with a couple of colleagues further up.
'Dog Town' is situated at the foot of the tower with one of it's resident Prairie Dogs looking at what's going on.
We are also close to Sturgis, South Dakota with the famous 'Bike Week' starting tomorrow so motorbikes are everywhere, this Victory has a matching trailer, very stylish!
Tonight we have a Hotel booked in Rapid City very close to Sturgis but due to the inflated costs we won't be hanging around.
We stop in the park for breakfast close to Lake Macdonald with it's crystal clear water, the still early morning provides us some reflections of the mountains in the distance.
Stopping at Macdonald Falls you can see the scenic beauty of this park as the road starts to rise.
The road is more like a European mountain pass & you can enjoy the curves on the parts that are not too busy with traffic.
As we approach Logan Pass we reach the highest point of the road at just over 2000m, not that high really with the surrounding peaks reaching just over 3000m, it's nice however to be back in the mountains & time for a selfie.
The mountain goats like it here & seem to ignore the tourist, this family group just go about their own business next to the visitors centre.
From the Logan Pass it's all down hill to the park exit at Saint Mary which takes you straight into the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, the difference in the wealth between the two sides of the park is very stark.
Passing through Browning we ride to Choteau, it's easy to see where Montana gets it's wealth, the golden fields of wheat are regular sights & the iconic shape of the grain elevator is very common.
We pass several convoys of combine harvesters being moved from farm to farm & the dust clouds created during harvesting can be seen in all directions.
Choteau turns out to be a very attractive small town & the adjacent restaurant does great fruit pies, the Hotel is also one of the best we have stayed in.
A shorter journey the following day to Billings sets us up nicely for the visit to the Little Bighorn Battlefield, since 2003 this historic monument has begun to embrace both sides with this mural being part of the Indian Memorial that opened that year.
They now mark where some of the native warriors fell with red tombstones as well as remembering the horses that perished during the battle in 1876, more information on the National Memorial & the battle itself can be found here: http://www.nps.gov/libi/index.htm
General Ciuster is of course the name that everybody associates with this site, this is the location of his 'Last Stand' with the headstone marked in black marking where he fell.
Leaving Montana we now enter Wyoming to visit the iconic Devils Tower featured in the 1977 film 'Close Encounters of The Third Kind', I have to say I found this laccolith more impressive than I was expecting!
This was the first US National Monument established in 1906, of the 400,000 annual visitors about 1% climb the tower, you can see one here with a couple of colleagues further up.
'Dog Town' is situated at the foot of the tower with one of it's resident Prairie Dogs looking at what's going on.
We are also close to Sturgis, South Dakota with the famous 'Bike Week' starting tomorrow so motorbikes are everywhere, this Victory has a matching trailer, very stylish!
Tonight we have a Hotel booked in Rapid City very close to Sturgis but due to the inflated costs we won't be hanging around.
Bah, bah, bah, bah-baaaah
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