Flathead County

Fri 23rd Sept. It was like sleeping on a boat last night with the wind rocking the van, and it hasn't relented any this morning, although a bit bluer sky today. With waste tanks getting full and water low first job was to find a dump station. Visitor centre pointed us in the direction of the park campground just down the road but their dump station was closed for the season, so went out to the private campground just outside the park but they wanted to charge us $25, so went to another private campground and their dump station was near their entrance so we just sneaked in and use that. We were then ready to start the journey up the 50 miles of the Sun Road which transects the park from east to west, and is considered to be one of the world's most spectacular highways. Firstly it follows St Mary's Lake, which was looking like a rough sea, with white caps, whipped up by the wind. We stopped at Sun Point, and decided to do the three waterfall trail, which went alongside St Mary's Lake, and the burnt forest from July 2015. First waterfall was Baring Falls, then the two tiered St Mary's Fall. Between St Mary's and the last falls Virginia, there was an attractive rocky waterway which we spent a lot of time photographing, however the photos didn't really do justice to the rock colors. Virginia falls also was very pretty and we took a bit of time photographing from different angles. The whole walk was actually very relaxed compared to our usual get out and conquer hikes. Hike stats: 10.6 km, active time 2 hr 27, elevation gain 344 m. Once back at the van, we decided we might as well stay in the carpark for the night - that was until 6pm when a ranger came along and stopped outside the van, we thought we better go and find a campground so went back out to St Mary's, but the parks one was all full, so we thought we would just go back to last night's spot. We were eating dinner when the park ranger came along again and this time put his lights on to summon us. Doug went out, and said we were just finishing dinner and we would move on, however he said if we were gone by 7am we could stay, so that's a relief but it does mean an early start. There is quite a few hikes we would like to do up at the top of the road at Logan's Pass which is about 20 miles from St Mary's, but with no campgrounds available it makes it really difficult, we either have to drive in each day or just do one of the hikes. Life is just so difficult making these decisions! Steps V 17620Read more