Hooray! Some decent weather at last!

There was not a cloud in the sky this morning as we set out from Ft MacLeod. We rode back towards Calgary a few kilometres and then turned west for another 16 to visit the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.

This is a UNESCO World Heritage site. For 9,000 years the natives killed buffalo here by stampeding them over a cliff. There is an impressive interpretive centre near the sight that details the enormous community effort that went into the planning and execution of the hunt. Horses did not arrive in America until the 1700's when the Spanish explored the area. Nor did the Indians have bows and arrows until the white man came. As you know however they improved on this technology very quickly. For thousands of years they have been using other techniques which involve psychology and an intimate knowledge of the animal.

As we were leaving we met another biker, Harold, who was travelling on a Honda Goldwing and chatted for a while. We recognised the bike, because he had had a room in the same motel as us last night, although we did not see him there.

From there we continued south towards the US border. Initially I thought a line of beige shapes low on the horizon was the outline of a major city - except there isn't any major city in that direction. Then I thought it must be a line of far off clouds.

As we rode on, we got closer and it soon became apparent that we were looking at the snow capped Rocky Mountains. Oh! Wow! (We closed in on these all morning.)

We stopped for brunch at a cafe in Cardston, the last town in Alberta before reaching the US border. The waiter was chatting to us about our next destination and when we told him we were planning to ride the "Going to the Sun" road, another couple sitting nearby eagerly endorsed our choice of route. They then made a phone call as we continued conversing with the waiter. It turned out they were phoning ahead to check if the road was open, and they soon gave us the bad news that because of the heavy snow falls in April and May, the road would not be open until at least 18 June. The other bad news they gave us was to tell us this is one of the five most scenic roads in the US. Damn!

This prompted an immediate change of route. We decided to ride west from Cardston to the Waterton Lakes International Peace Park, which took us up close and personal to the mountains. The most dramatic thing you notice is the sudden transition between grassland and mountains... pure rock.

Three separate groups of escaped horses on the roadside surprised us.

Riding south from there we crossed into the US at a tiny border crossing, smack in the middle of nowhere. Fourteen miles from there the road we were on connected back onto the main road south from Cardston and we continued south to St Mary, where we stopped at the Park Cafe, a highly recommended pie shop to see if its reputation was deserved - and it is. There were a few other bikers stopped there. We talked about our bikes and destinations, as bikers do.

From them we learned that it was possible to get 12 miles down the Going to the Sun road. We thought this would be the next best thing to riding the entire road, so we turned down it towards the Ranger Station. They wanted $12 per person for a 7 day pass to enter the park. As we were only planning to spend an hour or two on this road we declined.

Our ride took us around the southern edge of Glacier NP following a green river, railway tracks and immersed in pine, cedar and birch trees.

We had planned to overnight in Columbia Falls, but were told the town of Whitefish, a few miles further on was prettier, so we headed there and found a good motel for the night. We bought our dinner at a nearby supermarket and ate it outside the motel on a bench in the sun overlooking a small lake.