Day Five - St. Mary, Montana to Culbertson, Montana (591 miles)
I did not think we would spend another night in Montana. We ended up doing our little 120 mile loop before breakfast. We went up into Alberta to check out Waterton Lakes National Park. It was pretty much the same as Glacier. We made one stop in the park and continued on. We drove back through St. Mary going south on U.S. 89, but side tracked on St. Rt. 49 towards East Glacier. This road was quite a bit torn up but offered some fantastic views; as good as any in the park. Once in East Glacier we traveled back west on U.S. 2 just to see what lie ahead. At the T. Roosevelt memorial we decided we had better make some tracks east before we ran out of time. We stopped for a buffalo burger back in East Glacier, and then headed east on U.S. 2. The road between East Glacier and Browning was under construction, and we thought this was going to be long day. Once through Browning it was a breeze. As we began heading east on U.S. 2 we quickly realized there was not much traffic, and we could see for miles ahead. Slowly our speeds were creeping higher and higher. Pretty soon we were cruising at 95 mph, we would top 100mph when passing. At Hinsdale I decided to time how long it took us to get to the next gas stop. We went from Hinsdale to Poplar (99.5 miles), gas pump to gas pump in 65 minutes (91.8 mph average). After awhile you get so used to this speed that it doesn't feel that fast at all. Once it becomes necessary to drop down to 65 mph you feel as if you're crawling. The Montana vastness also lends itself to these kinds of speed, it just mile after mile of wheat, and grain fields. The motel in Culbertson had just been renovated from the July 4th flood, so the rooms had all new beds, and carpet. The cost - $20.00.
