... well we (Steph, Thea, Hana and me) were going on an adventure!
This is what we got asked at the border to the US when we decided to go on a little roadtrip to Montana to see Glacier National Park. It was Stephs and Theas idea and just having purchased Krissy's and my roadtrip car turned out to be ideal and enabled us to actually go. First adventure in the new car - here we go!!! We prebooked a very nice hotel in a town calles Whitefish and spent like 4 days being extremely excited until it was time to leave and explore.
Off we go to Whitefish, Montana for the night which is about 400 km down south from Banff. The drive was long, but very scenic, passing Radium again (déja-vu...) and the natural hot springs (see the last blog entry). At about 300 km we hit the US border. This was a not too pleasant experience. The officers were clearly trying to intimidate us being four girls traveling together, having 4 different nationalities and all being on a working holiday visa. We had to explain a few things and it took us like 40 min to finally cross the border and step on US American ground. It was starting to get dark and we still had quite a bit to go, but finally, we made. STARVING. First stop - trying to find an open restaurant at like 10 in the night in a small country Montana town... Turned out to be not that easy, but we found a very American diner (a little dodgy..) selling pizza. First things first.
 |
| Found that the next day... They don't take that very seriously after 10pm I guess |
Then we arrived at our hotel and OH MY GOD. This was great. Awesome. And not even that expensive! WOW. Before actually going to bed, we went to the bar for a few good night beverages in front of the fireplace. Well, it can't get any better I'd say. Did I mention how luxurious our room was? With a massive bathroom and like 10 pillows for each bed and.... We did enjoy this a lot. Excitement is a little understatement for us jumping on the beds and trying on the bathrobes and shoes and considering buying incredibly expensive gummy bears from the mini bar. And the shower. The shower!!!! Heaven.
The next morning, we had a look around at Whitefish Lake (the restaurant of the hotel overlooked that lovely little lake) and then went into town. We found that Whitefish is a very artsy small Cowboy town in the middle of the mountains. I wish I could have skied there. It was full of lovely memorabilia shops and little art shops. Definitely a place where you could spent a day or two explopring!
 |
| Nice small towny - full of saloons and brewerys! |
 |
| Wish my backpack could at least fit one of these as they are all true! |
Then off we go to Glacier National Park! On our way we passed a little town called Hungry Horse and then went into the park. The scenic road going through it is called "Going-to-the-sun-road" but due to it being early season, we couldn't drive it all the way through as it was partly closed. Instead, we had to take an alternative route going on a regular highway. But we drove the part of it we could and went to see lovely Lake McDonald. In the pictures you can't really see it, but the stones have really pretty colors while they are in the water whilst being dry they look kind of greyish and not really spectacular.
 |
| The 'Fort of Hungry Horse' |
 |
| We found the hungry horse! Just in the middle of town randomly on a little grass area! |
 |
| This is how far my horse contact goes in this country... haha |
 |
| Entering the National Park! |
 |
| Middle Fork Flathead River |
 |
| Lake McDonald |
 |
| Colorful stones! Unfortunately just when they are wet. |
 |
| Enjoying the view! |
I found that those lakes further south are kind of missing that amazing turqouise Canadian Rocky Mountain color. But it was still very beautiful. We turned around after Lake McDonald and went on the other Highway leading right through the National Park It kind of follows the river going through the NP and we just stopped wherever it pleased us. Also, it was kind of a very curvy road and even me, the driver got a little car sick. But totally worth all the enjoyable views!
 |
| Traintracks to... anywhere?? Also, we almost got run over by besaid train. |
 |
| The river got a little faster and people even offered to take us rafting... I would've gone! |
 |
| Hana and Anna casually hanging out in Montana ;) |
Almost having crossed the NP, we took another little detour and went to see Two Medicine Lake. It started to become very, very windy and cold, but it was a beautiful little spot. A campsite was very close as well. Quite a cool place to stay!
 |
| Two Medicine Lake with a piece of driftwood placed very artfully |
 |
| It was so windy, the lake actually had little waves coming to the beach! |
 |
| Seems like I can never get enough of these tree pictures |
It was starting to get late and we still had a more than 300km to go, so we were going on the return trip up through the endless prairie. Seriously. It was just flat and mostly straight for quite a while which felt very strange. We were going through an Indian reserve and sadly, there was lots of garbage beside the highway, the town we went through looked just sad with all its run down buildings and a lot of creepy people hanging out on the streets. So all the clichées are true and I kind of hoped they weren't. They have all this massive history going on and now... Well. This is not a discussion for this blog entry. At some point, we had to cross the border again back to Canada which wasn't half big of a deal as going into the US. This is Steph welcoming us back to Alberta, Canada:
 |
| Wild Rose Country... still haven't seen one haha |
Yes. We're back. Drove past the junction to go to Waterton National Park, but we couldn't go as the road was still closed. Well, it was getting later and later and we didn't have lunch, so we decided on needing to eat. Project dinner turned out to be quite intersting in rural Alberta... Let's just say we were all very, very hangry and miserable. After dinner, we all were better again and arrived in Banff late.
What a trip! Thanks girls for the great time! The moment we went into the hotel room will always be remembered ;)
