Glacier National Park, Day One: An Autumnal Beauty Display
Day One: October 26, 2020 Going to Missoula
The first part of our 2020 Fall Foliage Tour, down to the Wind River Range in Northwest Wyoming, with a return through the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, was from October 4 thru 7. We had intended to take the second part, starting the following Saturday, October 10. Our trip to the west side of Glacier National Park, however, was postponed not once, but twice due to early winter, i.e., fall snowstorms. So, it was Monday, October 26, when we finally left our apartment in Billings, and hit the snowy roads of Montana, heading toward the setting sun, on our sojourn to the west side of Glacier National Park, one of the most scenic places in the lower forty-eight.
When we departed Billings, at 11:41 AM, the snow was piled high, and although no new snowstorms were forecast, the interstates were, if not treacherous, then at least a bit nerve-wracking. I had been out several times during the winters of 2018/19 and 2019/20 and never encountered any problems on I-90 between Billings and Big Timber, a jaunt of a little over eighty-three miles. Although everything was a virtual winter wonderland on those trips, the interstate was cleared of all snow. I did not think about it, but on this westward journey, we left the day after the snow stopped so they had not cleared much of the interstate. The highway was in good shape in the big cities, of Billings, Bozeman, Butte and Missoula, where we spent that first night at the Motel 6. The road just a few miles outside the cities, however, was a much different story. I don’t know why the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) made the decision to work as they did, but for the majority of the 345 miles to Missoula, the only part of I-90 that was fully cleared was a two-foot strip on the left shoulder and left lane. That did not make sense. I, as well, as the vast majority of the drivers on the road that day, spent much of our time driving in the left, or passing, lane due to this irregularity. I was literally driving with the left side of my vehicle on the left shoulder of the highway, while the right two tires were on ice. Needless to say, I drove very slowly, for the most part, no more than thirty to forty miles per hour.
Our first glimpse of the Beartooth Mountains was at mile marker 412. They were heavily clad in snow, but as you can see from the photograph, low-lying cloud cover made good snapshots almost impossible. Our first glimpse of the Crazy Mountains was at mile marker 397. The weather was a little better at this point, and I was able to snap a few nice pictures.
Driving through the Livingston to Bozeman corridor of I-90 is always a dicey proposition due to high winds that can push down onto the interstate. That is without a snow-covered, icy roadway to traverse. Needless to say, I was not too interested in trying to snap photos of the Absaroka and Bridger mountain ranges. This, first, day was all about reaching Missoula, our stopping point on the journey to Glacier National Park.
There are four rest areas, along I-90, between Billings and Missoula. We used them all. The first was the Columbus Rest Area (about half-way between Park City [exit 426] and Columbus [Exit 208]). This was at mile marker 419, twenty-four miles from where we entered the interstate in the southwestern corner of Billings. The next road-side stop was the Greycliff Rest Area at mile marker 382. This is a couple miles before you reach the tiny town of Greycliff, Montana. With a population of less than 100 citizens, this census designated place, or CDP, is truly a wide spot in the road on the way to Big Timber. The town of Big Timber, however, is what I refer to as a “two-exit” town, because it has two interstate exits, the first of which is near mile marker 370. This is where we leave the highway when visiting our friends, Randy, Debbie and Hunter. They were the first friends we made since moving to Montana in 2018. With a population of around 1,700, the county seat of Sweet Grass County is in a beautiful location, sitting at the base of the Crazy Mountains. If I never get to Stanley, Idaho (my preferred place to retire), then I would definitely have no objections to this little slice of Heaven on earth.
The Bozeman rest area is a very nice one, but not really convenient to the traveler. This is one of those rest stops that you have to get off the interstate, and in this case, drive about half a mile to your destination. Still, it is a rest area, and very well maintained. Take exit 305, just west of Bozeman, proper, turn left onto N. 19th Avenue and continue for four tenths of a mile to the objective. The next formal rest area on I-90 is just off the interstate on the Anaconda-Pintler Scenic Byway. At least this pull-off, though not directly on the highway, is easier to reach than the previous one. The Anaconda pitstop, actually the MDT Highway 1 Rest Area, is about one mile from the eastern terminus of the Pintler Veterans Memorial Scenic Highway, or Montana Highway 1, at I-90. It is a very nice facility, actually an information center, and approximately six miles from Anaconda. In S.A. Snyder’s Scenic Driving MONTANA, the Anaconda-Pintler Scenic Route: Anaconda to Drummond, is scenic drive #5. Doug and I would travel over, and view, this drive on our last day as we returned home.
With sunset, at the end of October being about 6:30 PM, it was fully dark when we finally arrived at our destination. And it was hard driving. Therefore, I did not take many pictures on our opening day of the 2020 Fall Foliage (West Glacier) Tour. There would be plenty of photo ops, though, over the next five days.
