Ride from Gardiner, MT to St Mary, MT

We left Gardiner, MT (Yellowstone NP) on May 28th headed for Great Falls, MT for our overnight stay enroute to Glacier NP. We arrived in Great Falls in a pouring rain storm that they said had been going on for two days!! Was fun getting set up at our site and getting the dogs "to go" in that kind of weather. But, mountain women that we have become - we zipped right through it and found out the important stuff...such as where to get a good breakfast for the next day! You never know when you will see something special and while out with the dogs, something flew into the bushes right in front of me that I had never seen before..a pheasant. What a beautiful multi-colored bird…very majestic looking. Anyway, Great Falls is pretty much a military town as Malmstrom AFB is there which gave us a chance to go to the commissary and load up on groceries for the next week. Don’t think I have ever seen so many casinos (only have slots and KENO) on one street which was the main street of Great Falls. Think I lost count at 15!! Then it was off to the Base Exchange for some thick, warm hiking socks; then to the local outdoor store for some hiking boots, since it seemed the weather in this part of the country is so unpredictable. We were lucky as they were on sale since they were already gearing up for spring and summer….

The next morning it was on the road again for Glacier and the St Mary KOA Campground. The drive up was quite a diversity of terrain as we went from miles and miles of flat wheat and green alpha fields (the main stay of that part of the country) on I-15 then turned onto state roads 287 and 2 which was still pretty flat with nothing but cattle range and very poor looking ranch houses. The small city of Browning was the only town in-between, but there in the middle of all this run down town was a pretty big Indian casino (we didn’t stop)!! We kept saying to each other this was not what we pictured this area to look like. We had left the morning before with beautiful mountain peaks and bison in the road or prong horn deer grazing in the fields to these flat lands. But we then turned onto 89 and then, all of a sudden, the terrain changed...we could see the tops of the snow covered mountains, and we were headed around and around up a narrow mountain road in a light blowing snow. Then we got to St Mary, a little hamlet which consisted of a big lodge & gift/sports apparel store for us touristas, a gas station, two very small country restaurants, a gas station & general store, and a Norman Bates looking small motel. There would be no Chinese take-away here! But to our amazement, one of the three eating establishments in town was the Park Café, a little place just down the road which made really good healthy meals and about 18 different homemade pies and of course your dinner meal came with which has become my favorite - wild huckleberry ice cream with chocolate syrup!! There was also a small food market that hadn’t opened as yet and some old looking trailers. We were very much worried at that point as to how this KOA was going to look…boy were we ever pleasantly surprised! It was just great! It became a favorite. We just stood outside for awhile and took in all the beauty to which we were privileged to see. What a country we live in….have we said that once or twice before? Can’t say it enough!