We left Kalispell quite early as I realised the previous day that the ‘Going to the Sun’ road that takes you through Glacier National Park is still partly closed, so we had to go into the park, out and around to get to Cardston, resulting in a longer trip than initially planned. Just as well that we spent more time on the road than in Cardston as it turns out, but more on that later! Kalispell is only 33 miles to West Glacier, where we stopped briefly to pick up some pamphlets before heading out onto the open part of ‘Going to that Sun Road’. It was a beautiful drive next to Lake MacDonald and we stopped loads of times to take pictures, but it really is a shame that we couldn’t drive the entire road as we missed the more spectacular parts of the drive – nothing we could do about it though! On the way back we stopped by the lake and had our lunch sitting on a log looking at the lake; very peaceful with not another soul in sight – just the way I like it! We then started the drive up to Canada via East Glacier, where we turned off to take a quick drive into the park again via the Two Medicine gate. This detour was well worth it as it had spectacular views of the mountains and lakes and we really enjoyed it, despite the road being a bit more of a challenge than normal roads!
The weather was starting to get hairy again, but we mostly managed to outrun it as we headed up north past St Mary (brief stop for some rip-off petrol!) and Babb and through border control. It was only a short run from border control to Cardston and when we got to the town we took a quick drive through town to see what there was to eat and drink, as we usually do. To our horror we couldn’t find a single bar and only one restaurant – it turns out we booked ourselves into a motel in a ‘dry town’!! Cardston was founded by Mormons in 1887 and is one of the few dry towns in Canada. We were more astonished by the fact that not only were there no bars, but also practically nowhere to eat, and eventually we ended up with a Dairy Queen (DQ) burger for dinner, and some Sons of Anarchy for entertainment. The motel room (Flamingo Motel) was by far the worst I’ve experienced, but I won’t go on here about it as I’ve already submitted my Tripadvisor review!
Things I learned today: Do a bit more research on the towns you book accommodation in before you commit to booking a room there!! We would have been better off driving another half hour, even after a long day already, than staying in Cardston!
Biltong and Burger 