Day 24 – Entering US in Idaho
It was around 10 a.m. when we reached the U.S. border at Porthill. The border officer asked if we were carrying any fresh vegetables or fruits. After about a 20-minute drive, we stopped at Sturgeon Station to fill up on gas and grabbed breakfast at the shopping center. With limited options, we settled on a SuperSONIC Double Cheeseburger and a Premium Beef Hot Dog. The combo meal came with over a dozen options for sides and drinks. A polite, slim teenage staff member patiently repeated the choices twice, and we finally decided on onion rings, chili fries, and Coke.
From there, we switched from Highway 95 to Highway 2, which follows the Kootenay River. Our next stop was Kootenai Falls, where we walked down to the falls, and it quickly became the highlight of the day. The area wasn’t crowded, and the atmosphere was lively yet peaceful. We found a quiet spot at the bottom of the falls, closed our eyes, and let the sound of the water crashing onto the granite rocks wash over us. Nearby, a father and son were playing on the rocks, with the dad teaching his son how to skip stones. The towering sandstone mountains, sprinkled with small pine trees, and the emerald-green water in the basin below created a magical moment. Sitting there, we began to shake off the exhaustion from our long drive through British Columbia and felt recharged for the days ahead.
As we continued along Highway 2 towards Kalispell, we noticed a group of people parked along the roadside, intently watching something. Curious, we stopped too and discovered two moose calves grazing just a few meters from the road. It wasn’t long before more cars pulled over, and soon a crowd had gathered, cameras in hand. Someone jokingly remarked that they should start charging for roadside admission.
We continued our drive towards Glacier National Park, our destination for the day. In Kalispell, we stumbled upon an Asian Buffet Sushi restaurant and couldn’t resist stopping in for a sushi feast. The buffet did not disappoint—it featured about thirty different items, including various sushi rolls, salads, meats, and desserts, all for just $15 per person. Feeling satisfied, we resumed our journey along Highway 2 and finally reached the West Glacier entrance just after 5 p.m., only to find the Visitor Center had already closed. We decided to spend the night at a nearby campground and explore the park in the morning.
The Glacier Campground office was housed in a cozy wooden cabin surrounded by vibrant flowers—yellow, red, white, and pink blooms neatly marking the entrance. Inside, a friendly middle-aged woman at the counter helped us with the registration. The warm, inviting atmosphere made us feel right at home. A few people were lounging on couches in the adjacent room, making use of the free Wi-Fi. After setting up camp, we headed to the Sunflower Café for a quick bite and ordered a couple of beers. We enjoyed drinking them as we relaxed, reflecting on the day’s adventures, before finally calling it a night and heading to bed.
Day 25 – Glacier National Park
It was dawn as we woke and the sun was slowly showing up behind the dense trees in the campground. We quickly used the washrooms and took off. As we were about to leave campground, two deers watching us and we stopped to watch them. After a while, they weren’t much interested in us and we said goodbye to them and drove to the West Glacier Park entrance. We went to the West Glacier Cafe to get coffee. As I was about to enter, a cheerful man opened it for me claiming he had an instinct for opening doors for women. When we ordered the coffee, the bar tender told us to enter from the East side as the number of vehicles allowed to enter from West was limited until 3 pm. He checked on the website and confirmed that the vehicles are fully booked for the day.
Glacier National Park is an important place to visit for us as it almost completes our many visits to the Rocky Mountains, starting from the Canadian Rockies in Alberta, and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming in 2014, two years later to the American Rockies in Colorado, and this time Northern Rockies in British Columbia and now the Midwest Rockies in Montana. Many of these mountain images are vivid and permanent. There are room for those images, and we were excited to see them.
We decided to enter the park from the east side at St. Mary and drove highway 2 until we reached East Glacier Park
