Days 15-17
Their dining room is called Russell's Fireside Dining Room. They're referring to the artist Charles Russell.
A bear was spotted along the shoreline.
We departed Waterton and headed south towards the border. It is a lonely border crossing with no cars ahead of us. The US border agent was pleasant and only asked a few questions and then we were on our way. No search of the RV and no problem with Hobbs. Cool! You can see that Canada's Waterton National Park and the US's Glacier National Park are adjacent and really captures the same rocky mountain beauty. In fact, this wall model from the Great Northern Railway, that we saw in the Lake McDonald Lodge, tries to illustrate this point.
Susan & I had visited Glacier National Park last year as part of our epic cross-country RV trip. Allan and Patricia had never visited Glacier, and Susan and I were quite happy to return again as part of our Canadian trip. In fact, we all stayed at the same campground as the prior year, since it was so nice and close to everything.
After lunch we checked out the view from the back of the Lodge.
If you'd like to see our blog posts from last year that covered our visit to Glacier, click on these buttons:
From the internet: "Charles Marion Russell, also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, and landscapes set in the western United States and in Alberta, Canada, in addition to bronze sculptures." On display is one of his paintings that captures the beauty of Lake McDonald.
We also checked out the West Glacier Golf Course. As you can imagine, the views are spectacular!
We've visited West Glacier, Montana, twice now in two years, and have immensely enjoyed our stay both times. We look forward to visitng again soon!
Tomorrow we begin driving long distances to get us back home. Our stop tomorrow is at a Harvest Host in Missoula, the Big Sky Brewery. We're looking forward to their hospitality!
Allan & Patricia were able to get a reservation to drive the "Road to the Sun" the next morning. Susan and I decided to skip the experience this time, and instead find a beach where Hobbs could do some swimming. We drove around Lake McDonald and found this picnic area that fit the bill. Hobbs had a great time swimming in the crystal-clear glacier water.
The next day we headed to the Lake McDonald Lodge to have lunch. The lodge exudes a rustic comfort quality (if you don't mind stuffed animals looking down on you.)
