Yesterday morning we drove from Kalispell to the western entrance of Glacier National Park, about 45 minutes away. We were expecting massive crowds and bumper to bumper traffic on the Going to the Sun Road, a 50 mile drive that runs between the east and west gateways to the park, climbing to over 6500 feet at the Logan Pass at the Continental Divide. But to our surprise, although there were large crowds everywhere, the road itself was never affected.

I published a group of landscape photos yesterday afternoon. In addition to enjoying the mountains and valleys, we stopped at one of the lodges, built in 1914.  Here is the lodge (outside and in), the lake behind the lodge, the deer who wandered into the lake, and one of the rehabbed 1936 shuttles that can guide you through the park.

When we reached the east exit from Glacier, we drove for about 30 minutes where it seemed we were still in a park. Beautiful mountains, lakes and rivers and no sign of human development.

When we finally left this wild landscape, we found ourselves in the town of Browning, on the western edge of the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. Driving into Browning was driving into the 1950s. The only restsurants were a Johnny Taco and a Subway (we chose Subway,). Everything was dilapilated, the small houses, the businesses and the streets. Wikipedia says that almost 50% of those who live on the reservation live below the poverty line.

But the reservation does have a museum. It isn’t theirs but is a federal museum.

And it contains contemporary art by tribe members, and an absolutely fascinating collection of Indians clothing, tools, weapons, and so forth, mainly from the 19th and early 20th century. For some reason, photography is not allowed. Because the collection was so interesting, I broke that rule with one photo.

All real, original costumes. And this is just a small part of this museum that has been in Browning since 1941.

The museum and, yes, the neighboring casino seem to have no effect on the rest of the town. Sad, sad, sad.

After our Subway lunch, we had dinner in Kalispell at Moose’s Tavern, which had been recommended by our chef in Spokane. It was jammed with customers, it has virtually no illumination, you order your pizza at a window and your drinks at the bar, you have to find a table and clean it off, there is sawdust on the floor, and boy is it noisy. And I didn’t like the pizza.

And you can get your hair cut next door.

That’s it. Tomorrow, off to Missoula. Our last stop..