Tuesday August 12 through Wednesday August 14
Once again heading north we pass through Bonners Ferry, and over the Kootenai River Bridge. We make the “hook” at Three Mile Corner with US 95 continuing to the Canadian border and US 2 hanging a right leading to Montana.
Moyie Springs (822 souls) is still in Idaho. The Moyie River Bridge is 464 feet tall and has a span of 1223 feet.
The highway continues southeast paralleling the Kootenai River. The scenery is just beautiful. The BNSF Railway also follows the Kootenai’s canyon. We get glimpses of the tracks now and again. Forty two miles from Bonners Ferry is Troy, Montana.
Troy (797 souls) lies at the lowest elevation of any settlement in Montana at 1900 feet and lies within the Kootenai River Gorge. It was settled by miners in the 1880’s and registered as a town in 1892. The town grew quickly after the Great Northern Railway built a freight station there. It’s main economic growers are mining and logging.
Downtown Libby, Montana
Eighteen miles further is the city of Libby (2775 souls). The city is known as the “City of Eagles”- 36 foot sculptures of eagles adorn the place- one at each end of town and the third perched over the gateway to Libby’s downtown. The city is the seat of Lincoln County. Early economic activity included fur trading, railroad construction, mining and logging. Miners flocked to Libby Creek in 1867 but it was deserted by the 1870’s. By 1892 with the arrival of the Great Northern Railway the town repopulated and moved downstream, the name shortened from Libbyville to Libby. Today Libby depends more on tourism and less on mining. seventeen miles upstream is the Libby Dam, finished in 1975.
The Libby Dam is 17 miles upstream from the city of Libby
US 2 leaves the Kootenai River at Libby. It is 88 miles to Kalispell. We pass a few small settlements in that 88 mile stretch but no town. The courtryside is beautiful.
Kalispell (24,558 souls) is the seat of Flathead County. The city is the 8th fastest growing area in Montana. The name Kalispell is a Salish word meaning “flat land above the lake”.
The lake referred to is Flathead Lake. The lake measures 30 miles long by 16 miles wide making it larger in area than Lake Tahoe but not by volume of water. It is the largest lake west of the Mississippi by surface area and lies seven miles south of Kalispell.
Kalipell’s earliest settlers were most likely from the Hudson Bay Company. Kalispell came about as a railroad town as the railroad decided on a station here rather than larger and more settled towns nearby.
Us 93 will lead us nearly to downtown Whitefish before we turn off on Montana 40. In three miles we reach the turnoff to Whispering Pines RV park. We make the turn and see 3/4 mile long used to be gravel, now mostly dirt road. We go slower than the posted speed limit of 20 mph. Locals will tell you it don’t matter how slow you go dust is flying everywhere. We drive into the park- it’s gravel roads are clean- not dust. We check in at the office and a fella in a golf cart takes us to our site. There are two tiers to the park. The upper is newer and laid out as most parks are. The lower sites are in pine trees are nicely spaced on a loop road and the sites are LARGE! Our site has a pull through drive 100′ long. Even a few of the back ins were nearly that long. The sites are nicely spaced in amonst the pine trees. We like it!
Whitefish is a tourist town. Close enough to the U.S./Canadian border to draw Canucks and half of the U.S. knows this town for its old time downtown, the lake and the social life. The place is so popular that traffic is horrendous. U.S. 93 squeezes down from 4 to 2 lanes then goes right through town. There is really no way to not go through town if one is heading north especially if you are driving a tractor trailer combo. In the winter Whitefish Mountain Resort offers downhill skiing.
We are here to visit Jil’s sister who lives in Whitefish. Her house is just a block and a half from the shops and restaurants downtown. I suspect the house was built sometime in the 1920’s or 30’s but Kim’s late husband did a heck of a job of modernizing the place without detracting from its architecture.
Whitefish Lake
We had dinner with Kim at a nearby upscale restaurant because her granddaughter was working there that day. It was nice visiting with Maci. She’s such a nice young lady.
Jil on the left with her Sis Kim
The next day Jil spent most of the morning at Kim’s house. They were putting their heads together, trying to figure out what to do with some paperwork that Kim had received. That evening we picked up a pizza on the way to Kim’s. It was good visiting once again with Kim and Maci.
Tomorrow we’ll be heading past the west entrance of Glacier National Park. We’ve been in the park a few times, taking the infamous Going to the Sun road to the visitors center a couple of times and all the way over the mountain to St. Mary another time. A vehicle length limit keeps anything longer than a pick up truck off of the narrow, twisty road. Well, the very prominent signs keep most long rigs off the challenging road. Last time we drove the Going to the Sun road a few of us drivers met a 36′ motorhome trying to negotiate the first switchback- unsuccessfully I might add. The RV blocked the entire road- which isn’t saying much since the road is barely two vehicles wide. Some level headed fellas helped the driver move out of one lane of traffic, still blocking the second, so vehicles could get by. That was many years ago- I think the RV is still there……….. We are done with crowds and will enjoy the east side of Glacier NP as it is not nearly as busy as the west.
So we will see you next time in Browning, MT.
Travel With Jil and Mike 