We had a great omen about three miles down the road when TM had to almost come to a stop (along with the traffic behind him) and allow a cow elk to decide which way she wanted to go. She finally decided to turn tail and retreat, lucky for us!
We entered the park still undecided on whether to ride the scooter up Going to the Sun road or take a shuttle, but when we were allowed to bypass the long lines waiting to get into the park because of our seniors pass (getting older isn't all bad) TM decided to ride the whole thing, so off we went.
The road starts off along Lake McDonald and it is hard to decide whether to look at the lake on the left or at the beautiful trees and moss on the right. Decisions, decisions. And traffic was light enough for TM to thoroughly enjoy both sides as well as navigate the road. At this point it was pretty level, but somewhat crooked and wet.
Just as the road cleared Lake McDonald a series of high waterfalls came into view, so we stopped and TM puled the little camera out of the glove box of the scooter and took a shot of that, then just up the road the first of the snow capped mountains came into view, so we stopped again, this time we each took a picture with the little camera.
Now the road started to climb, but there wasn't any particularly great shots, we we went almost half a mile without taking a picture. (Actually it was closer to five miles, because we were high enough to look back down the valley and see the river and road as well as look ahead to where we were going)
If you look closely at the mountains on the left side of the picture you can see the road snaking along the hill side ( in places it really sticks out from the mountain side) and then see when it makes a sharp turn to continue up to Logan Pass and the continental divide.
From this point on we made several stops to take pictures, there were no bad photo ops, though
the road was pretty bad in places, I was glad we were out before most of the traffic so we never had to stop for any of the construction sites, just slow down due to the gravel road with no guard rail to stop a fall of several thousand feet.
While at Logan Pass, a gentleman came up to look at the scooter and ask questions. When he noticed we were from TN, he had to ask where. Turns out he was a teacher at the University of Memphis for 20 years! Then a young man walked over and said he was from Middle TN so we had the whole state covered. One of the fun things about traveling is you never know who you might run in to.
Once we left Logan pass we dropped fairly quickly to the point where we were at the head of
Lake St Mary, where there was a 
pull off for a quick break and snack. TM had just figured out we were at least two, maybe three, hours from the trailer and TD had already been cooped up for over two hours, so it was about time to make time. But the scenery foiled us a time or two. At the foot of Lake St Mary we came across a scene we just had to stop and take some time admiring and to take a few more pictures.
Then we hit the highway for real, we had come a little over 50 miles, but it was going to take us about 97 miles to get back without going through the park again. The road was real rough in spots, and was the rout the computer had us routed on when leaving here to go to Canada, fortunately TM's ace navigator has already plotted another rout to dodge these.
In the entire trip TM only laid the bike over so far that TW wanted to straighten it up once, not bad considering the condition of the roads.
We entered the park still undecided on whether to ride the scooter up Going to the Sun road or take a shuttle, but when we were allowed to bypass the long lines waiting to get into the park because of our seniors pass (getting older isn't all bad) TM decided to ride the whole thing, so off we went.
The road starts off along Lake McDonald and it is hard to decide whether to look at the lake on the left or at the beautiful trees and moss on the right. Decisions, decisions. And traffic was light enough for TM to thoroughly enjoy both sides as well as navigate the road. At this point it was pretty level, but somewhat crooked and wet.
Just as the road cleared Lake McDonald a series of high waterfalls came into view, so we stopped and TM puled the little camera out of the glove box of the scooter and took a shot of that, then just up the road the first of the snow capped mountains came into view, so we stopped again, this time we each took a picture with the little camera.Now the road started to climb, but there wasn't any particularly great shots, we we went almost half a mile without taking a picture. (Actually it was closer to five miles, because we were high enough to look back down the valley and see the river and road as well as look ahead to where we were going)
If you look closely at the mountains on the left side of the picture you can see the road snaking along the hill side ( in places it really sticks out from the mountain side) and then see when it makes a sharp turn to continue up to Logan Pass and the continental divide.
From this point on we made several stops to take pictures, there were no bad photo ops, though
the road was pretty bad in places, I was glad we were out before most of the traffic so we never had to stop for any of the construction sites, just slow down due to the gravel road with no guard rail to stop a fall of several thousand feet.While at Logan Pass, a gentleman came up to look at the scooter and ask questions. When he noticed we were from TN, he had to ask where. Turns out he was a teacher at the University of Memphis for 20 years! Then a young man walked over and said he was from Middle TN so we had the whole state covered. One of the fun things about traveling is you never know who you might run in to.
Once we left Logan pass we dropped fairly quickly to the point where we were at the head of
Lake St Mary, where there was a 
pull off for a quick break and snack. TM had just figured out we were at least two, maybe three, hours from the trailer and TD had already been cooped up for over two hours, so it was about time to make time. But the scenery foiled us a time or two. At the foot of Lake St Mary we came across a scene we just had to stop and take some time admiring and to take a few more pictures. Then we hit the highway for real, we had come a little over 50 miles, but it was going to take us about 97 miles to get back without going through the park again. The road was real rough in spots, and was the rout the computer had us routed on when leaving here to go to Canada, fortunately TM's ace navigator has already plotted another rout to dodge these.
In the entire trip TM only laid the bike over so far that TW wanted to straighten it up once, not bad considering the condition of the roads.
God Bless
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