Leaving Alaska - Lethbridge to St Mary, Montana

We left Lethbridge, Alberta after shopping at Wal-Mart to restock groceries and other supplies.

The drive to St. Mary was less than 90 miles and so we weren't in any rush.  We made our way south through Cardston, enjoying the scenery and the pretty day.

The road along our route was almost deserted, other than the free-range cattle that wandered onto the highway from time to time. Although we did see an occasional car, the drive was very quiet and peaceful.

We arrived at the Mt Piegan border crossing around 10 AM and made it through the check point with no problem.  However, we did notice a lot of cars and RVs lined up to enter Canada.  We weren't sure what was causing the hold up - this is not exactly a busy area!

And there we were, back in the lower 48 of the USA with Alaska 2000 miles behind us. We felt a little sad that our Alaska adventures were over but we were looking forward to visiting Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Devil's Tower National Monument, the Crazy Horse Memorial... well, you get the idea. We still had plenty of sight-seeing ahead of us, plus would be visiting family and friends along the way.

Once into Montana, we started looking for a place to buy some adult beverages. We stopped at a roadside market and the clerk told Lynda the nearest place was the Duck Lake Lodge, just a short jog off the highway. So off we went on a little side trip to Duck Lake Lodge. When Lynda went inside to buy the beer, the owner and another customer told her about some escaped convicts that had been spotted in the area. They were pretty excited about the prospect of running into the bad guys and told Lynda they were "ready for them". We're not sure exactly what they meant by this but my guess is that "ready for them" is Montana-speak for "come on punk, make my day."

This also explained the pile up of vehicles we saw at the Canada side of the border crossing - law enforcement officials were searching every vehicle looking for the escaped prisoners.

So after that bit of excitement, we continued on to Glacier National Park.

By 12 noon, we were settled into the St Mary Campground at Glacier National Park. This is a typical National Park Campground without any hookups, but we can use our generator and have plenty of water on board. Our campsite is very nice and private, there are trees all around, and the weather is beautiful. We'll ride along the Going-to-the-Sun road tomorrow and see some sights of Glacier National Park.  All is well in the world, at least for us!

Click here for photos of our drive from Lethbridge to St Mary, Montana.

Stay tuned!