Westward hoboes : $b ups and downs of frontier motoringDixon, Winifred Hawkridge
General
Westward hoboes : $b ups and downs of frontier motoring
Dixon, Winifred Hawkridge
Automobile travel; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
Having “done” Yellowstone far more comfortably with the car in three
days than we could have in six without it, we left on the fourth day
for Glacier. The road improved vastly as we entered Montana. Both
the Red and Yellowstone Trails were well made and kept in excellent
condition. We skimmed over a beautiful country. Bold and free hills,
soft brown in color and the texture of velours spread below us. The
road curved just enough for combined beauty and safety, and was well
marked most of the way. We mistakenly chose the shorter route to
Glacier Park entrance, instead of taking the more roundabout but far
more beautiful drive through Kalispell. It is a mistake most motorists
make sooner or later, in the fever to save time. But to compensate
we had a glimpse of Browning, half Canadian, its streets full of
Indians, half-breeds and cowboys dressed almost as gayly as the redmen
and their squaws. Some garage helper there made the usual mistake of
saying “left” and pointing right, with the result that our prairie
road suddenly vanished and we were left in the midst of a ploughed
track which had not yet fulfilled its intention of becoming a road.
For the next twelve miles to the Park we went through wild gyrations,
now leaping stumps, now dropping a clear two feet or more, or tilting
above a deep furrow or a tangle of roots. Once more we marveled at the
enduring powers of the staunch old lady.
Glacier Park is not primarily a motorist’s park, as is Yellowstone. An
excellent highway runs outside the Park along the range of bold peaks
that guard the Blackfeet reservation, and an interior road connects the
entrance with St. Mary’s Lake and Many Glaciers, the radiating point
for most of the trail rides. To run a machine past these barriers of
solid peaks would be nearly impossible, yet there are still extensions
of the mileage of motoring roads which can and probably will be made.
Tourists with their own cars can do as we did, cover what roads are
already accessible, then leave their car at Many Glaciers. There they
can take the many trail trips, either afoot or on horseback, over the
glorious passes from which the whole world may be seen; climb ridges
and cross mountain brooks, ice cold from melting glaciers; or look
down from Gunsight or Grinnell or Mt. Henry into passes where chain
after chain of exquisite lakes lie half a mile below.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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