Glacier National Park

 Tuesday, April 27, was a beautiful bright sunny day in Western Montana as we left Shelby and headed further west on Highway 2.

It wasn't long before the snow-covered Rockies started showing up on the horizon.  We drove to the town of Browning then took Hwy 89 north to St. Mary where we entered Glacier National Park on the East side.

Better than expected.  The peaks and glacier lakes were terrific in the bright sunshine and clear mountain air.

It is hard to describe how spectacular the mountains looked up close even though we could only go five miles into the park because the road was closed due to snow.

The Park had a roadside memorial for the native Blackfeet Indians who now live on a reservation just outside Glacier National Park.

When peace was reached with the Indians in the late 1800's, each Indian was given 600 acres of land in the reservation, but many sold theirs to the White men.

As we drove around the south side of the Park we stopped at this roadside descriptive sign showing  how snow melt coming off the closest snow-covered mountain peak ran in three directions.  Its water runs to the Pacific, into the Gulf of Mexico, and up to Hudson Bay in Canada.

Amazing!

We stopped for lunch in Whitefish, Montana and walked around this picturesque town in the mountains.

The antique shop downtown had many interesting items including this bicycle table.

And this child's riding tractor.  Bill had seen plenty of John Deere riding tractors before, but this was the first Farmall, and Farmall tractors were what his grandfather farmed with in Cass County.

After time in Whitefish we decided to drive to Missoula for our next destination.  Along the way we stopped to watch this herd of Elk in a field next to the road.  When we got to Missoula the temperature was 72 degrees.  We had an excellent day of sunshine in the Rocky Mountains.

🌞