The Expedition of Discovery

June 26, 2024 – Wednesday

We continued up I-15 to Great Falls.  I have always wanted to see the waterfalls on the Missouri River.  Our first stop was Black Eagle Falls.  It was a little disappointing.  Since we are in early summer, I was expecting the water flow to be higher.  However, most of the water is diverted to the hydroelectric plant and only a little was going over the falls.

We continued to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center on the banks of the river.  They had many displays and movies about the Lewis and Clark Expedition of Discovery.  They also had a high school history teacher come and talk about the expedition.  It was all very interesting.  One of the volunteers had a huge Newfoundland dog, the same type that traveled with expedition in 1805 for the 8000 miles from St. Charles to the Oregon coast and back.

We did a short hike to Big Spring, one of the largest freshwater springs in the county.  It feeds millions of gallons a day into the Missouri River.  After leaving the spring we drove about 15 miles to the Great Falls.  Again we were disappointed that water was low and there was not much going over the falls.  At the interpretive center they had pictures of the falls before the dams and after the dams.  Before the dams the falls were massive and beautiful.  When the expedition encountered the falls they had planned a day to portage around, but there were 5 huge falls and they had to portage for 18.25 miles.  It took them two weeks.

We had reserved a spot at Two Medicines Campground in Glacier National Park for the night.  We arrived around 6 pm and enjoyed the evening at camp.  We planned to go into Glacier NP tomorrow, but we found out that timed-entry reservations are required.  We will leave real early and see if they will let us in the park.

June 27, 2024 – Thursday

It started raining early in the morning and was raining when we woke up.  We left camp a little after 6 am, hoping to arrive early and be able to get into the park without a reservation.  We drove about 10 miles until we finally got internet access.  We tried to get the reservations but found out the requirement for reservations didn’t apply to the East Glacier NP entrance, only the West entrance, so we didn’t need to be in such a hurry.

However, about 20 miles from the park entrance there was a fatal auto accident in the rain, and we had to turn around and detour through Browning, MT.  This added about 30 miles to our trip.  

The other reason we wanted to leave early was so we could stop at the visitor center at Logan Pass at the top of the Going to the Sun Road.  Last time we visited, the parking lot was full, and we didn’t stop.  This time there was plenty of parking because it was rainy, cold and we were in the clouds.  The clouds did clear occasionally, and we were able to get a few pictures.  The rain continued off and on for most of the day.

Later in the evening we crossed the Canadian Border at Carway and drove into Cardston.  We spent the night at a parking area behind the Cardston Visitor Centre.  It was nice and quiet, but windy all night long.