South to Glacier

6/20/2019

It was 37° overnight with strong winds at Waterton Lakes. We should have pulled out the winter comforter. Construction crews started on the campground road at 0515 so it was not a good night for sleeping.

Walking around the campground, we met Pat from Calgary, who has a 2016 Lexor. He took a peek in while we filled our water and liked Beth’s creations and the change out to the Lagun table mount.

Left Waterton just before 10 and headed for the Chief Mountain border crossing. Stopped and looked for Moose at the overlook where we saw the mother and calf a few days ago. No moose, but the sandhill cranes were still there.

Only open seasonally and from 9 am to 6 pm, the Chief Mountain Border Crossing wasn't busy. There were only a couple of motorcycles ahead of us for inspection.

The mountain, at 9,080 feet, has been a navigational landmark for multiple generations.

Just after the border crossing, we passed the Dutch couple in a rented Ford Van that had been our neighbor the last few days in Waterton. Saw them three more times along the route. Chatted with them at this shop in Baab. Didn't buy anything, but had to capture the Kodak Film sign.

Stopped at the St Mary Supermarket  and it was a super disappointment. We ate up all our fruits and vegetables before crossing the border and we only found two tiny squash and a bag of chopped salad in the store. If you needed beer, wine, or soda this was the right place. Anything else, you are out of luck. The bread we bought turned moldy in 3 days. Yuck!

Just after noon we showed our park pass and entered Glacier National Park's east entrance at St Mary.
Immediately after the entrance lies a large visitor center where we pulled in to get an orientation.

Even before going inside we met a ranger with a trailer full of telescopes that does astronomy education at the Glacier Visitor Centers. Hope we have a clear night - and can stay awake late late enough - to attend one.

They are two weeks out from having a big new scope in a dome ready to use. It will be nice to have protection from the wind.

He let us get a peek at the telescope still in the original packaging.

From the visitor center we drove to the old ranger station but parking was full. Pretty places to stop abound in the park so we went a bit further and found a pullout next to St Mary Lake where we enjoyed lunch. After lunch we drove a tiny bit further before it started to rain so we did a U-turn and headed to the campground to check-in and take naps.

We do have a good view and cell service at St Mary Campground. We could see it snowing on the mountains as it rains in the campground.

Site C133
Elevation 4,514'
$23/night in peak season

As the weather deteriorated we opted to stay warm and catch up on a Hulu series.  Our Verizon cell phone plan limited data usage in Canada, so we are binging on unlimited data now after crossing back into the USA.

The best part of the evening was finding a tiny point of metal protruding from Beth's heel. I was able to grab it with  tweezers and extracted a thin piece of wire. She had complained of pain in her heel enough that she had seen a doctor twice back home before we left on the trip. The docs hadn't found the sliver, but we finally did.

Here's a typical site in the campground. You get a tent pad and a picnic table with an extension for wheelchair users. There are nice views and a little bit of low vegetation separating neighbors. Looking at these tents in the rain made us thankful for our warm little van.