July 29, 2025

It’s 8 p.m. local time and we’ve got camp sorted and ready for tomorrow’s pack-up.

We got a late start today – rolling around 10 o’clock after a nice cup of coffee brewed in a Campbell’s Soup can. When you’re limited to a single Stanley thermos french press, you improvise. Some shots at the Duck Lake campground in early morning.

First stop was St. Mary’s visitor center, which turned out to be quite lovely. We watched a short film about Glacier National Park and read up on the three Indian tribes with heritage here. After the visitor center, we did a quick reconnaissance of the St. Mary campground just to see what we were missing. Duck Lake remains the far better choice, in my opinion.

Then we took a short ride down Going-to-the-Sun Road from St. Mary for a roadside picnic – granola bars and cherries. At Logan Pass, we ditched our riding pants and hiked the Overlook Trail.

All told, we did about just 90 miles today – traversing nearly the full length of this magnificent road from St. Mary to just short of Avalanche. We stopped for photos, set up by the lake, and stuck our hands in glacial water. Feeling rested, we turned around and did it all over again on the return trip, this time admiring the three arches – structurally unnecessary but artistic flourishes added by the craftsmen who built this road decades ago.

Rolling back into St. Mary, rain clouds were clearly gathering, so we took cover under the supermarket awning to catch up on emails. Then we made a break for it before the storm hit, aiming for dinner at The Two Sisters restaurant which turned out to be a unique and tasty experience – fun to see all the character on the walls of this obviously well-loved institution.

After dinner, we grabbed showers at a place called the Leaning Tree campground ($5, honor system), then headed back to Duck Lake to get organized for tomorrow.

Both of us spent the better part of an hour at the picnic table tonight, trying to wrap our heads around the remaining days of this trip. The end is approaching fast with a lot of ground to cover and some puzzles to sort out. Dreams of tackling the Butler Map rated roads around Libby will have to wait for a different trip.

Enjoyed a nice sunset over Duck Lake to close out the day.