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Heading west from Havre, there’s not much to look at except granaries and elevators and a few widely-spaced towns. The terrain is generally flat and treeless and, when we came through, crops had already been harvested. West of Shelby, though, the topography became more interesting with hills reappearing and, eventually, we could spot the Rockies through the haze.
Our route north toward Saint Mary on Highway 89 passed through a vast swath burned earlier this month in the Red Eagle fire. Even stretches of the highway were badly scorched. We learned at the Visitor Center that Saint Mary had been evacuated when the fire threatened and Highway 89 was closed for about a week. Though we luckily arrived after the fire, we endured the aftermath, a persistent haze over the mountains that will probably not clear until some much needed rain arrives.
We were pleased to get reservations at the last minute at the Many Glacier Hotel on the east side of Glacier National Park. As you approach the hotel, you drive over the outlet of Swiftcurrent Lake and if you look left this is what you see:
Opened in 1915 to promote rail travel to Glacier by the Great Northern Railway, this marvelous wooden hotel was spectacularly successful from the very start. Its setting on Swiftcurrent Lake is, indeed, picturesque; it’s easy to see why eastern tourists flocked here in droves:
The view from the hotel directly across the lake is even better:
And here’s the scene looking left from the hotel towards the upper end of the lake:
Surrounded by all this magnificent scenery, we were content to spend the rest of the afternoon settling in, exploring this venerable, old hotel and taking a long walk to dinner.