Now it was time for the daunting part of the trip - a 450 mile drive from Hells Canyon to the West entrance of Glacier National Park in Montana. My plan was to park up around 40 miles away from the park entrance and catch 2-3 hours of sleep in the car before sunrise. Having already covered 531 miles this meant having to cover just shy of 1000 miles, no mean feat along with all the stops and short walks/hikes I had done around Brownlee Dam and Hells Canyon.
The first 2 hours of this drive were probably the easiest, as I found myself having to wind my way through the valley floors and along the mountain passes which linked North East Oregon with South East Washington.
Here's a sample of just one of the views that I had from the top of one mountain, looking along the canyon.
And yup, that is the exact sort of road off to the right of the image that I mentioned above. The area here was called Paradise, personally I think they need to add the word "Driver" to the front of that - it certainly is!
It may have been great fun to drive, but unfortunately it was also bad for draining the energy which I still had in reserve, but somehow the lure of Glacier kept me pushing North through Washington, then East into Idaho (with the area which I was travelling through looking so flat in comparison to the landscape which I had left behind in Oregon and Washington)
As the cars clock, which was still one timezone behind after crossing from Pacific Savngs Time (PST) into Mountain Savings Time (MST), struck 11pm (midnight in local time) I was around 80 miles away from the entrance to Glacier and pushed on through the tiredness for another 40 miles to my planned "kip-stop" near the town of Somers which lay on the shores of Flathead Lake to the South West of Glacier National Park.
Finally it was time for a few hours shuteye, albeit in the not-so-comfy seat of my hirecar.
Estimated mileage at this stage - 915 miles
Actual mileage at this stage - 984 miles
Actual mileage at this stage - 984 miles
No comments:
Post a Comment