Wednesday, February 3rd
Just north of Missoula, near Arlee, is the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas. It’s a lovely and tranquil spot, and gloriously incongruous among the Montana ranch houses. Very quiet when I wandered through.
The drive up to Glacier National Park, along the eastern edge of Flathead Lake, was gorgeous. It’s a nice rustic-recreational area – kind of feels like a national park in itself. I barely dipped into the actual national park – ran out of time and had to scoot on down to Coeur d’Alene – but the drive justified itself. On the way back down, this time on the west side of the lake, the views (near sunset) became spectacular. Somewhere around Dayton was the peak of it – looking out towards Wild Horse Island and the mountains beyond. Unreal.
South on 28 through the Flathead Reservation: desolate and beautiful.
The sun was down by the time I reached Interstate 90, which cut through the mountains and across the border into Idaho. Suddenly I panicked; I was low on gas, and despite being on the interstate, I was also in the middle of nowhere. I needn’t have worried; trucks come through there, and there are some rugged, outpost-style truck stops. I stopped in Haugan, at a gas station/hotel/restaurant/casino complex (the hotel was the Silver Dollar Inn). Simultaneously kitschy and woodsy. The clerk at the gas station had a mask dangling off of one ear, and made no move to place it over his face as he strode inside to ring me up. He was friendly enough, in a grouchy way.
Then onward, past tiny little towns on their steep slopes, twinkling with lights. Magical. Then bad Chinese takeout, then the Greenbriar Inn in Coeur d’Alene. Nice old place, with plenty of charm – though, fair warning, the walls are thin.
No comments:
Post a Comment