22 Aug
At 0801 hrs this morning we pulled chocks at Malta MT and headed west on US 2. Again, lots of FLAT!!
The trains are very prevalent out west. We saw many, many trains during our travels including Amtrac, tankers, lumber, likely grain cars, and even Amazon!
We stopped once for a potty break and then once for fuel about half way into the trip. As we got closer to our destination Doreen started researching fuel at East Glacier and we decided to refill before arriving so as to avoid paying the big bucks for diesel there at East Glacier. So three stops total.
At 1354 hrs we arrived at Johnson's of St Mary's RV Park which is located very close to the entrance to East Glacier National Park. This is stop# 28 of 37. We will be here until Sunday morning 28 Aug when we will head south to Helena MT.
There is quite a history of this campground. The land was purchased by Ruth and Lester Johnson back in 1957.
They hauled in a log cabin which was built in the 1940's from another location and opened a café. They ran it themselves until 1963 when they hired their first waitress. As the story goes, "Numerous Glacier park rangers and young seasonal help found a summer home with Ruth and Lester. They fed countless people at the “family” table for no charge, because it was just who they were. Many have come back over the years to say “Hi” and acknowledge how important the Johnson’s were in their life. No one was a stranger at Johnson’s."
In the early 1970's they added the campground and the lower dining room in 1977. In 2003 with the help of their sons, they added the cabins. Lester passed away in 2008 and Ruth in 2014. The café and campground are now managed by their grandson's. Interesting stuff!
So here at the campground, we are in the front row closest to Glacier National Park. There is a haze obscuring our view of the mountains right now and we suspect it is smoke from forest fires, but we have not confirmed that with the locals.
To the northwest of us is Lower Saint Mary Lake. Just north of there is the town of Babb MT and to the west is Many Glacier entrance. This entrance is not controlled by the timed entry system in use at the East and West Glacier entrances that lead to the popular "Going-to-the-Sun" road. We have tickets for a birthday boat ride on Wednesday 24 Aug so we do not need a timed entry pass that day. In fact they will pick us up at the campground for that one. Thursday we have tickets for a "Red Bus Tour" that will take us up the "Going-to-the-Sun" road and we were told we would not need a pass for that day. We have a three day timed entry pass for Thursday-Saturday and then we depart Sunday morning. They have restrictions on vehicle length and width, and the big ol' brown truck does not pass muster on either, so in addition to the boat and red bus tour we plan to use the shuttle buses to explore other parts of the park. The weather forecast is for rain, but we are hoping for the best.
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