My last blog had us leaving Yellowstone National Park on a beautiful August day heading north to Helena, MT to join some friends there. Driving along I-90, we reached the outside of a little Montana town called Three Forks when the highway suddenly turned to gravel! A mighty big construction project was underway that dumped four lanes into two. We drove on gravel in two-way traffic for what seemed like several miles. We were glad that our old Camry was as tough as a Jeep because that was some rough road!
We arrived in Helena just before noon and met our friends at Blackfoot River Brewing continuing our exploration of microbreweries. By this point in the trip, we had started to narrow in on what kind of beer we each preferred. My favorite is the mango-flavored Kolsch. David prefers whatever is the “least hoppiest beer.” Check out www.blackfootriverbrewing.com for some interesting tidbits, not only about their history dating back to the mid 1990’s, but also about their entire brewing process and ingredients.
After visiting with our friends, we continued our trek north to the beautiful Glacier National Park. We followed the self-guided driving tour available by downloading and purchasing an app on your phone that serves as the tour guide and map all in one. It’s about a 50-mile tour that takes 2-3 hours leaving from either the east or the west side of the park. On this tour we saw the crystal-clear Saint Mary Lake as well as waterfalls, glaciers, and a few hiking trails. Glacier National Park offers some great white water rafting but we weren’t that adventurous. Haha!! The best time to see Glacier National Park is July - September. We were there in August and the weather was perfect.
Nearing the end of our time off, we planned a route home that was more direct with fewer stops but made sure we went through Idaho so David could say he’d been there, lol. We diverted from our destination type of natural wonders and stopped to see the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, UT. We were disappointed to see nothing more than a building with a concrete wall around it. An ice cream cone perked us up and then we headed east for home, basking in the glow of the previous two weeks.
If you ever get a chance to take a leisurely trip like this, I highly recommend it. Be sure to take a few Drive Time® Truck Pucks® with you. They’ll keep your vehicle smelling fresh the entire trip, and you can swap out the scents so you don’t go “nose blind.” High Range Cedar filled our adventures with notes of pine, balsam, and fir, while Watermint refreshed us with its peppermint, spearmint, and vanilla.
Lori Herr for The Gift of Scent