Road trip journal #14: Great Pains

Summary

• Start: 13:30 (Kalispell, MT)
• Finish: 20:50 (Great Falls, MT)
• Distance: 243 mi (389 km)
• Mood: neverending

The day started late, as I was pretty exhausted from driving. The goal was to reach Great Falls in Montana, which is a bit closer to Yellowstone than Kalispell.

Maintenance

It turns out that unpaved roads can turn muddy after rain! I hadn’t really noticed the extent of mud accumulated around the wheels while driving on the National Bison Range the day before. But it had turned pretty solid in the sunlight that ensued. I didn’t feel it was too safe to drive fast and far with this amount of dirt around the wheels. So, the first order of business was to scrape the mud from the car.

There was a car wash nearby, so I decided to use it. It was a pretty good one, with some manual preparation, and lots of people using it. The car was pretty clean afterwards!

After the car wash I took a break at a nearby coffee shop to write and upload a blog update.

Hungry Horse Dam and Reservoir

Great Falls was far away, and I wanted to fly near Glacier NP (not in the park!). So, I took a US Forest Service route to Hungry Horse Reservoir. Turns out there’s a dam there! With a huge crane, as these dams typically do have.

Of course, I didn’t fly near the dam. Rather, I drove further up the road and flew over the reservoir, which is a recreation area. With the video, I took a panorama, split here in two for better visibility.

US 2

After that, it was driving on US 2 eastward.

It passes through the south Glacier NP and ends in a Native American reservation, which was closed except for “essential traffic” (e.g. gas) due to the pandemic.

Along the way, there is a goat lick station in Glacier NP. Mountain goats climb steep hills and lick rocks to get their share of minerals. I guess it’s their type of nutrition supplement. Unfortunately, it was pretty warm, and there were no goats. I missed out. There were views of the mineral-rich rocks, though, so I guess that’s a compromise, then.

And after that it was on through the mountain pass on US 2.

Along the way, near the end of the mountain pass, there was a huuuge BNSF train composition, several miles long. It took several minutes of driving to reach the end. I stopped near a station and tried to take better photos, but in the end didn’t want to disturb or trespass.

Great Plains

After passing through the mountains, you are greeted with the Great Plains. This is a stretch of land that is about 3000 miles north-south and 500 miles east-west. It is pretty flat, as far as the eye can see, with the occasional hill. I guess I’ve reached the easternmost location of interesting landscapes. In fairness, the Great Plains are pretty interesting as well, but only for the first 30 minutes. After that it gets pretty repetitive.

Even driving extremely fast in a straight line didn’t do much to make the monotonous drive more fun. Cruise control only goes so far if there is a 10-mile straight line, a slight curve, and another 6-mile stretch, and so on. I guess I could have counted the ever increasing number of bug marks on the windshield.

Great Falls

I reached Great Falls, booked into the hotel, and went to get dinner/breakfast at a restaurant. Pizza and quesadilla, I guess it’s an Italian-Mexican combo then. It’ll be another day of straight driving tomorrow, better get some rest.