Day 12 - (07/30) St. Mary, MT

Dick made an early morning trip to High Tech Automotive for an ignition switch replacement. These folks were great. They did the repair immediately, finished quicker than expected and for 30% lower cost than they estimated.

We said goodbye to Dick’s RV Park at 10am.

We continued the National Geographic US 89 Scenic Drive across a corner of the Great Plains toward the Rocky Mountain Front.

Freezeout Lake is just north of Fairfield. It’s a major stopover for migrating waterfowl.

Freezeout Lake extends across the prairie.

The Log Cabin Café caught our attention as we entered the town of Choteau. Carol had the “mile high sandwich”, Dick had “fish and chips with chowder”, and we shared warm peach pie alamode. We were amazed that everything, we mean every single item served, was absolutely delicious.

A log cabin to remember.

The town of Choteau didn’t disappoint either. It was clean, lively and apparently more prosperous than most we’ve seen.

This feed company was directly across the road from the Log Cabin Café

Teton County Courthouse – Choteau

This drive has presented the Montana we had hoped to see. The rolling hills, grass prairies and fields seem to stretch forever. It’s just like the scenes in “The Horse Whisperer” starring Robert Redford. You see mountains, prairies, ranches, real cowboys, cattle herds, and large fields of wheat and hay. We hadn't expected to see casinos on most street corners or connected to gas stations, however.

It seems you can see forever out here.

Much of the drive was within the Blackfeet Reservation.

We climbed into the foothills after leaving Browning.

St. Mary is at the eastern entrance to Glacier National Park. We’ll spend four days here. The first two days will be at Johnson’s Campground of St. Mary (water & electric). The remaining days will be at the St. Mary Campground in the national park (no services).

Johnson camp site overlooks St. Mary Lake

St. Mary Lake

We plan to drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road tomorrow.

Did you know?

What's the difference between a mesa and a butte? Both have eroded sides and are flat on top. A mesa is wider than it is tall; a butte is taller than it is wide.

Map Tracks
Start: Great Falls, Montana
North on US-89 to St. Mary, Montana
End: 158 miles @ St. Mary, Montana