Day 9 - July 22

Today was a spectacular day! The morning started off rather cool, with temps in the mid-50's, and after finding out that Hwy 89 north of Choteau was under construction, we found a nice, easy detour to get us around the construction zone.

However, a bit further up the road, we wound up hitting about 5 miles of construction that really could not be avoided without using up a whole bunch of extra time.

Eventually, we made it to St Mary and the entrance to Glacier National Park. The ride through there on the Going to the Sky highway was absolutely stunning! I wanted to stop at every pull out and get pictures, but there just weren't enough hours in the day, so a lot of the memories will have to stay in my mind. We did manage to get some excellent pictures and video of the trip through there.

After a nice lunch at Carolyn's Cafe in Hungry Horse, MT and a refueling of the iron steeds, we continued the trek southward towards Kalispell and visit to the local HG dealer (Glacier HD). From there, we wound up riding MT35 along the shores of Flathead Lake with again some great views.

Along the day today, we also went to the northernmost point of our trip (along the Going to the Sun Highway) as well as the westernmost point of the trip (Kalispell).

This, our 9th day on the road, wound up being the most "busy" day for us in terms of traffic. Glacier National Park, in particular, was very busy with tourists. Of course, today being a Saturday, didn't help things too much.

After a stop for ice cream in Polson, MT we took Hwy 93 into Missoula, with our nightly accommodations being at the Sleep Inn. Dinner and drinks were next door at the Paradise Falls Cafe and Lounge.