Glacier National Park

We left Billings, uncannily on the day of its Strawberry Festival, just as we did several years ago, and shoild have known that when we got to Whitefish and Glacier National Park, we would inevitably be a couple of weeks early for the Road to the Sun to be fully open. Sure enough only sixteen miles of the road was drivable from the park's west entrance. But we would have time to visit the park from its West and St Mary's (East) entrance, tomorrow. Today it was the West entrance, a twenty mile drive from our hotel, on a day that was cloudy, but remained dry. Arriving at the park we listened to Ranger Bill give a talk about what to do if you encounter mountain lions (very unlikely) or bears (more, but not very, likely). In short, there was no easy answer, but he did try a hard sell on a bear repellent spray ...... not many takers! It has to be said that the spray would probably be effective against pretty much anything! Bill explained that he once left a can in his car on a hot day and returning to it, noticed a small yellow ring on the seat, near the can. He opened the door, threw the can out, and found he couldn't breathe. Inadvertently, he brushed his eyes with his hand and then couldn't see, either! Well, we didn't buy the spray and fortunately, didn't encounter a bear! We drove the Road to the Sun, up to Avalanche, where the snowline was and parked the car in the picnic area.

 
It was busy!! We decided to hike the short Avalanche trail, an easy walk through the Avenue of Ceders, and were rewarded by sighting a deer and the impressive Avalanche Falls.

After lunch we headed to Kalispell, a nearby town which has a nice historic area. We called in the Western Antiques Centre and the adjacent Norm's News. In fact, the latter is housed in what once was a theatre and is now an old-style ice cream parlour, come soda fountain. We couldn't resist and plumped for 'Huckleberry'!

 Then it was back to base where the WiFi connection was back to normal!!

Whilst driving the Road to the Sun today, we heard the following oldie, which I confess to not having heard before ... "Quiet Village" by  Martin-Denny: