Glacier National Park Day 1
Glacier National Park
Day 1 - September 7, 2005 - Monument, CO to Billings, MT
After our alarm went off at six o'clock, we were packed and ready to go by 7:15 a.m. It was 50° when we left Monument. We hit the commuter traffic going to Denver so we took the E-470 Tollway to avoid the congestion through the center of Denver. Even before Lincoln Avenue, traffic was backed up and at a crawl. How fortunate not to have to face this on a daily basis. Our only delays on the Tollway were the stops to pay as our express toll transponder is in the Honda CRV, not the S2000! But this small delay and the $9.75 were an easy price to pay for the ease of using this excellent bypass.
At 8:30 we joined I-25 again at 160th Avenue. The newly completed bypass of the city was very well done. It is now 65° with overcast skies and haze from the forest fires in Montana, 600 miles away. We have not been north of Denver for quite a while so it is interesting to see all of the new developments. There seemed to be many more oil drilling rigs tucked into the corn fields up here.
We stopped at the Wyoming/Colorado State line at 9:30 for a photo opportunity. It is so much drier here at the border. There were four tourists from Alabama there also, so Vic took their picture under the Welcome to Wyoming sign and one of the gentlemen took our photo too. One of the great things about traveling is meeting people along the way!
Our first stop for gas was at Cheyenne. Premium was $2.93 per gallon and regular was $2.74, even on the interstate. We were pleased to see that gas prices were cheaper than Colorado Springs.
We traveled north on I-25 on the path of the old Oregon Trail, California Trail, Mormon Pioneer Route, and the Pony Express National Historical Trail. The dry rolling hills are crossed with a few greenbelts along the river beds but most of the creeks and many lakes are dried up and parched in this late summer. We saw a few buffalo, many herds of antelope, and grazing cattle.
We stopped for gas again at Casper at 12:30. Rest areas are few and far between in this part of Wyoming so we pulled off of the interstate on a side road and ate our picnic lunch and stretched our legs a bit. We were back on the road again heading north to Buffalo and then Sheridan. Other interesting aspects of this drive are the number of road kills on the interstate. Rabbits and other wild animals must be very plentiful as there are so many on the macadam.
We made it to Sheridan by three o'clock and stopped for gas. Prices are pretty consistent, $2.99 for premium plus. Another 25 minutes and we crossed the Montana state line and entered the Crow Indian Reservation.
The landscape is about the same but as we travel further north we have found the cottonwoods are turning golden and the other foliage are turning to their fall colors. We crossed the Little Bighorn River and saw the Battlefield Monument where Custer was defeated. There have benn many changes here since we were by this way with our son Eduardo in the 1990s, there is now a huge gambling casino run by the Crow Agency at the entrance of the national historical Battlefield.
We got off the Interstate 90 at Hardin and stopped at the visitors information Center and Custer County Museum. The Big Sky volunteer was so nice and gave us maps and information about Montana and Glacier National Park. She also told us about the Derby Mountain fire that has destroyed thousands of acres between Billings and Bozeman at Big Timber, Montana.
We found our Quality Suites Hotel at about 5:15 and were greeted with the news that we had been upgraded to a corporate suite! We have a very high speed wireless Internet, two TVs, a huge room, and a sitting room with a desk. After checking our room and looking at our e-mail we looked at the photos we had taken today. We went out to wash the car and eat dinner.
Billings is a college town at the junction of I-90 and I-94 so there are many choices for food and lodging. We chose the HuHot Mongolian Grill and had a wonderful time watching the chefs prepare our dinner on a huge stone that was over 500°. It is similar to a buffet in that one chooses what is to be cooked and then it is put on the stone. We returned back to the hotel and worked on the journal and finalized the pictures. At 9 PM Gennie went to the reception and was served popcorn and ice cream. How lucky!
| Miles Traveled | Gallons | Avg. Price | MPG |
| 65.2 | 5.34 | $2.939 Prem | 30.93 |
| 181.8 | 6.30 | $2.969 Prem | 28.86 |
| 150.9 | 4.87 | $2.999 Prem | 30.99 |
| 140.3 | 5.36 | $3.059 Prem | 26.18 |
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