Glacier National Park 2021: God’s Autumn Extravaganza! Day One

Day 1: Monday, 9/27/2021:

On this, my second trip to Glacier National Park in 2021, I left Billings, Montana a few minutes before 8 AM. My brother Doug and our good friend Steve were accompanying me on this journey. Once again, wind-blown smoke, probably from the west coast wildfires, obscured our views of the Beartooth and Crazy Mountains so we did not stop at my favorite viewing points, mile markers 412 and 377. After a drive of 79.6 miles, we pulled into the parking lot of The Fort, Big Timber’s answer to a convenience store on steroids.

Not only do they sell gasoline and food stuffs for the journey, but The Fort has a small deli-type sandwich shop which carried hot as well as cold foods and even pizza to go. They also have a nice souvenir section at one corner of the building and a rather large gun store on the other end. Doug and I always stop here to grab a cup of coffee and use the bathroom, if necessary. We filled up with gas though there was plenty in the tank. With a long drive to Great Falls, I wanted to make sure we had enough fuel. When I’m on the road, with possibly long stretches between stops, I don’t like to see my gas gauge get below the halfway mark.

From Big Timber, it was another 32.1 miles to the junction of I-90 and US Highway 89 N. This is exit 340, and it is 112 miles from our home. In S. A. Snyder’s Scenic Driving MONTANA, the drive north, along US-89, is Scenic Drive #23 Crazy and Little Belt Mountains: Livingston to Sluice Boxes State Park.

We passed through the towns of Clyde Park and Wilsall, on our north-bound journey to the high country. Clyde Park is a little over fifteen miles from I-90. The small municipality is named for the Clydesdale horses that were bred on a ranch near here. This borough is not large. From a former Tennessean standpoint, it would probably be noted as a “wide spot in the road.” The town of Wilsall, which got its name from Will and Sally, son and daughter-in-law of the founder, is about ten miles north of Clyde Park.

A mile after leaving Wilsall, the sculpture “Welcome to the Shields” created by local artist Gary Derby stands tall with the Crazy Mountains looming behind it. This statue nicknamed “Thunder Jack” was dedicated in 2006. It is a highly detailed bronze statue of a mountain man and was built and placed there as a tribute to the mountain men of bygone eras such as Jim Bridger, John Colter, and Hugh Glass. For those of you who saw the movie, The Revenant. Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed Glass, who survived an attack by a female grizzly bear protecting her young. Though the movie is set in the mountains during winter, in reality, the attack probably occurred in the plains of South Dakota and in late spring or summer. The statue is on the right, or east side, of US-89 and the Crazy Mountains form a beautiful backdrop to this stirring rendition of a long forgotten age in American history. This figure is at mile marker 25.

According to Google Maps, White Sulphur Springs is about sixty-seven miles north of I-90. Along the way, we stopped briefly at my favorite place along this stretch of open road, mile marker 31, on US-89 North. Though we didn’t get good photo opportunities, due to the lingering smoky haze, I wanted to show my friend Steve, a place where you can view three mountain ranges from one spot. There are two ranches, one on each side of the highway at this spot, and by pulling off, one can see the Crazy Mountains to the east, the Bridger Peaks to the west and the soaring Absaroka range to the south. I cannot think of any other place that presents a vantage point to see three distinctly different mountain ranges such as mile marker 31 on US-89 N. More than once, in the three years I have lived in Montana, I drove the 143 miles just to see if I could get any good photos of the mountains.

Our odometer was reading 174,829 as we entered the outskirts of White Sulphur Springs, which meant we had traveled 178 miles since leaving home. We had another ninety-eight miles before reaching Great Falls, the third largest city in Montana.

Four miles later, we began to transit the Kings Hill Scenic Byway, one of the eight scenic drives in Montana. This nice, but not spectacular drive, along US Highway 89, begins at the junction with US Highway 12 and meanders its way north for seventy-one miles before ending at the junction of US-87/ MT-200. From that spot, which has a nice rest area, US-87/MT-200 takes the motorist the final twenty-four miles to Great Falls.

This stretch of road is known as the Kings Hill Scenic Byway, and it traverses through part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest while climbing through the Little Belt Mountains. As we gained altitude, small pockets of aspen started popping up, most of which were at or near peak color. Kings Hill Pass, which sits 7,385 feet above sea level, is just over thirty-one miles from White Sulphur Springs.

After crossing the pass, US-89 N winds down, from its lofty perch, for the next six miles before coming to the Memorial Falls Trailhead at mile marker thirty-five. There is a small parking area complete with pit toilet. Neihart is only a couple miles further. The best aspen groves were in the area immediately before and after this settlement, of about fifty, and for the next few miles.

It is right at twenty-five miles from Neihart to Sluice Boxes State Park. About the first fifteen miles or so was through a nice little river valley, which the Belt River carved out on its way north to its terminus into the Missouri River. After leaving the valley, the terrain opened up and  remained so, past the state park and up to the intersection of US-89 N and US-87 N/MT-3 N/MT-200 N at Armington Junction.

From the Sluice Boxes State Park scenic overlook, the view down into the Belt Creek canyon was excellent. Groundcover on the bottomland adjacent to Belt Creek, which is visible from this vantage point, was putting on an absolutely extraordinary show of fall color. Unfortunately, the sun’s position at this point in the afternoon made it all but impossible for me to get good photographs of this area. Perhaps next time, I will try for an early morning or late afternoon arrival. At least we know there is a lot of color down in that river valley. I’ll let Doug cover it from here: “With respect to previous observations concerning fall foliage visible from the Sluice Boxes State Park overlook, groundcover on the bottomland adjacent to Belt Creek is somewhat reminiscent of the multicolored mosaic created by alpine tundra in Alaska during fall.”

A little over ten miles later brought us to Armington Junction, the northern terminus of the Kings Hill Scenic Byway. US Highway 89 North merges temporarily with US 87/MT 200/MT 3. From this junction, which has a very nice rest area, it was about twenty miles to the outskirts of Great Falls, a city with almost 59,000 citizens. Home of Malmstrom Air Force Base, this metropolis has the third largest population in Montana.

After refueling, we continued our journey, west to the small town of Augusta, and then north by west through Choteau, Dupuyer, and Browning to East Glacier Park Village, where we would spend the night. Instead of angling northwest directly to Choteau, however, we traveled west to August, and then northeast to Choteau. Thus, we drove eighty-six miles before reaching Choteau. I wanted to visit Augusta first, to see what views we could get of the Rocky Mountain Front. Unfortunately, the west coast wildfires put a damper on my photo opportunities.

Augusta is situated on US Highway 287 N, about one third of the way from the southern entrance to what S. A. Snyder, in his book, Scenic Driving MONTANA, calls the Rocky Mountain Front, or Scenic Drive #22 Rocky Mountain Front: Browning to Wolf Creek. Augusta is seventy-six miles from Helena, Montana. Wolf Creek, the beginning of the Rocky Mountain Front Scenic Drive, is thirty-four miles, or half an hour, from Helena, the state capital of Montana. And Augusta is a little over forty miles from the unincorporated community on Little Prickly Pear Creek in Lewis and Clark County.

Following US-287 north brought us to Choteau, the county seat of Teton County, Montana, in a little less than half an hour. With a population of over 1,700, this small city has the largest population density along the Rocky Mountain Front drive. There were many cottonwoods in the area, and they were on fire, or at peak fall-color.

We picked up US Highway 89 N, at Choteau, and continued north by northwest toward the town of Dupuyer in Pondera County. It is about fourteen miles from Choteau, traveling north on US-89, to Bynum where the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center is located. With a population of just twenty-five as of 2020, this small CDP, or census-designated place, in Teton County does not offer much with the exception of the dinosaur center. We stopped briefly but it was after 5 PM and the museum was closed. I did take a couple of snapshots of a dinosaur statue out front. My brother Doug is working on an article about the Montana Dinosaur Trail for the Big Sky Journal. It will probably be coming out next summer.

The Montana Dinosaur Trail is a group of fourteen museums, state parks and other attractions throughout the central and eastern portions of Montana, that partially, if not fully, feature dinosaurs. This pathway through history opened in 2005 and sees anywhere from 236,000 to 302,000 visitors each year. They even have a “Prehistoric Passport” similar to the one for National Parks, where visitors can collect a dinosaur stamp from each museum they visit. Five of these attractions are on “the Highline” a term used for US Highway 2 which flows from east to west along the northern part of the state. The Fort Peck Interpretive Center is the official visitor center for the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, which is a little south of the Highline. Included among the displays are the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex named “Devil Rex” which was discovered in the Wildlife Refuge in 1988. The main, or most impressive of these destinations is The Museum of the Rockies, located in Bozeman, Montana. For those of you who have seen the Jurassic Park movies, the Sam Neill character, paleontologist Alan Grant, was based to some extent upon real-life Montana State University professor John Robert (Jack) Horner. Horner even helped as a technical advisor for all of the Jurassic Park movies. In addition to his role at Montana State University, Horner was the Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies, which is located on the university campus.

For more information on the Montana Dinosaur Trail visit www.mtdinotrail.org.

It was a little less than twenty miles from Bynum to Dupuyer. And from Dupuyer it is just over thirty-eight miles to Browning, the headquarters for the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

With a population of just 120 people, this wide-spot-in-the-road doesn’t provide a lot, but they do have a road-side rest area about a mile north of town. Despite the stop in Bynum, it only took about forty minutes to reach Dupuyer, and with nothing to do since the views of the Rocky Mountain Front range were diminished by the smoky haze, we continued onward toward Browning and then our final destination for the day, East Glacier Park Village.

The Birch Creek Entry Point, on US-89 N, to the Blackfeet reservation, listed on Google Maps as “Blackfeet Nation Entry Post” was 10.3 miles from Dupuyer and 27.9 miles to Browning. Doug noted in his field notes that the cottonwoods along Birch Creek were in “prime color condition.” He also said that “like other entrances to the Blackfeet reservation, this area is marked by sculptures of two Blackfeet warriors on horseback with coup sticks and straight-up bonnets.”

I’ll let Doug’s own words describe these pieces of artwork by Jay Laber. “The following data succinctly explains the history and cultural significance of these sculptures: “From scraps of rusted automobiles, bits of barbed wire and the stones of an old mission school, artist Jay Laber has created a statue of two Native American warriors astride their horses at all four entrances to the Blackfeet Reservation. The first entrance sign was completed in 1999. The bases of these signs were [made] with recycled sandstone blocks from the buildings at Two Medicine Catholic Mission, which was [constructed] in the late 1800s. The horses and riders were constructed of old cars [that] were destroyed in the flood of June 8, 1964. Both events played a major role in the history of our people and continue to do so today” (https://www.visitmt.com/ listings/general/landmark/blackfeet-warriors-sculpture).”

It is thirteen and a half miles from  Browning to East Glacier Park Village, our destination for the night. We stopped for supper in Browning. Doug had a sandwich from Subway while Steve and I picked up taco burgers at the local Taco John’s, before continuing our journey. Along the way, we saw some really impressive cottonwood stands from the Two Medicine River bridge on US-89. As Doug noted, they were in “near prime condition.” And we saw a small herd of buffalo near mile marker 110 shortly after turning onto US-2.

All good things come to an end, and ours stopped at the Mountain Pine Motel in East Glacier Park. I had intended to stay at the Dancing Bears Inn like I did on my summer journey with Karen and Wayne, but their website was down for some reason, and I could not get anyone to answer when I called. I received that “mailbox is full” message each time I tried to reach them. It worked out for the best, however, as we had a really memorable experience at the Mountain Pine Motel, and would in fact, recommend it to anyone staying in East Glacier. The manager/night clerk was Ryan Sherburne, a descendant of the person for whom Lake Sherburne, in the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park, was named. Talking to Mr. Sherburne was such a delight as we learned a lot from him. I know for a fact that anytime I am staying in East Glacier, it will be at the Mountain Pine Motel. Doug listed the contact information and I have added it below.

Contact information for the extraordinarily helpful, knowledgeable, and nice guy at the motel in East Glacier Park (Mountain Pine Motel) is: Ryan Sherburne, Mountain Pine Motel. Telephone: (406) 226-4403. E-mail: ryan@mtnpine.com. Ryan Sherburne’s grandfather or great-grandfather was the person for whom Lake Sherburne was named.