2021 Glacier National Park with Karen and Wayne: Day Four
Day Four: Friday, July 30
After spending our last night at Glacier, it was time to head home to Billings. Although there were plenty of goodies in the refrigerator and the fruit basket, we ate lightly in anticipation of our stop at the Echo Lake Café in Bigfork. Shannon is the manager at the Dancing Bears Motel, and she was extremely nice and very helpful. I would definitely recommend this delightful motor inn at the original entrance to Glacier National Park.
We started out, on Friday, July 30, a little later than usual, but this day was about returning home to Billings, so it was going to be a leisurely day for us. I had already told my friends about the delightful little café on what would be our southern route back to the interstate. I didn’t take as many photographs on the fourth, or final day of our journey to the high country, as this was a travel day. The James Girard Memorial Tamarack Grove near the end of the Swan Valley Scenic Drive was about the only place I took the time to take snapshots.
We retraced our route along US Highway 2, from East Glacier to West Glacier, and then continued our westward trek along US-2 through the town of Hungry Horse before coming to Columbia Falls. We turned south on Montana State Route 206. After about ten miles, we took a left onto MT-35 E. This road starts east before turning south by southeast for eleven-and-a-half miles. The final 2.8 miles were on Montana State Highway 83 S, though at this point the highway travels due east. The Echo Lake Café was on the left, and I was very impressed with the quality of the food. I have been there twice now, once last fall and this time. Anytime that I am on the west side of Glacier National Park, I will be having breakfast, at least once, at the Echo Lake Café. And I always recommend this wonderful little diner to would-be travelers on the west side of Glacier.
After we ate a very late breakfast (actually it was closer to noon before we were seated), as we had to wait for about thirty minutes due to the crowd, it was time to head home. But not before we did a little more sight-seeing along our journey into what I have always called God’s Country. We stopped off at the actual town of Bigfork for a little window-shopping. Although, Echo Lake Café has a Bigfork address the small eatery is really a few miles north of town.
Continuing south on MT-83, though, took us on a nice little scenic drive through the Swan Valley. With the Swan Mountains on one side and the Mission Range on the other, this ninety-mile drive is a beautiful way to end a journey into the high country known as Glacier National Park. According to S. A. Snyder’s Scenic Driving Montana, this is Scenic Drive #3 Seeley Lake and the Swan Valley: Clearwater Junction to Bigfork. Along the route, we saw several lakes, some small, some quite large. The first one was Swan Lake which we first started seeing after about nine miles of driving, and the first portion of MT-83 was known as the Swan Highway, before becoming the Daryl Soltesz Memorial Highway.
From Swan Lake, it is fifty-six miles to Seeley Lake. Last fall, when Doug and I took this trip, the larch (tamarack) were really starting to get into their peak fall yellow/gold color. During the summer, of course, everything was green. We passed the turnoff to Holland Lake after driving about thirty-six miles. This lake, not seen from the main highway, was on the left, or east, side of the road. Nine miles later brought us to the first of a series of lakes, all on the right side of the thoroughfare. This was Rainy Lake. Just a few minute later saw us passing the larger body of water known as Lake Alva. Another three miles further south brough us to Lake Inez. Finally, after traveling an additional eight miles, we came to the town of Seeley Lake, at the southern end of the lake with that name. With a population of 1,286, this was the largest city we drove through since leaving Bigfork.
Seeley Lake is near the southeastern corner of the lake. County Road 70,otherwise known as Boy Scout Road, is a few hundred feet past the southern border of Seeley Lake. This is the second exit to Boy Scout Road as the first one came before we reached the northern edge of the lake. We turned right onto this road and followed it to the James Girard Memorial Tamarack Grove. The oldest tamarack, or larch, named “Gus” is the centerpiece of the aforementioned grove of old trees. In fact, Gus is about 1,000 years old.
It was a scant two-and-a-half miles from the second exit, off MT-83, to the Girard Memorial Tamarack Grove. After leaving the grove we headed back to the main highway, MT-83 and continued south to the Clearwater Junction where Montana Highway 83 ends at Montana State Route 200. There is a rest area, on MT-200, about five hundred feet to the east of the junction. The entrance, however, is directly across from MT-83. Out here, where rest areas can be few and far between, it is always best to stop when you find one.
From the junction, it took a little over half an hour, via MT-200 W, to reach the interstate, I-90, just to the east of Missoula. From there it was about five hours or around 336 miles (by Google maps directions) and we were back home. So ended our journey to the high country. For those of you who want to visit Glacier National Park, I have included a link for the major pullouts along the Going-to-the-Sun Highway to help you in the planning. I hope you enjoyed my blog as much as I enjoyed viewing Glacier National Park. My brother and I plan on visiting during the last week in September this year. That is when the fall viewing should be at its best.
http://enjoyyourparks.com/GoingToTheSunRoadPullouts.html
