Glacier-Waterton: cycling Waterton to St. Mary

Today we left the spectacular Waterton views to head back over the border. The first 5 miles were just getting to the park entrance. Then, there was a 5 mile seemingly never-ending climb to the rest stop. The rest stop had a lookout to view all of the mountains in Waterton Lakes National Park. It also had many hungry insects that started landing and biting as soon as we stopped moving. Needless to say, it was a short break as we had to keep moving while eating just to try to evade some of the bugs.

There was a great downhill section after this rest stop. Then, endless climb to get to the U.S. border crossing at mile 20. No separate line for pedestrians and bicycles at the Chief Mountain crossing, so, we waited in line with the one lane of cars (the other lane was for trucks and busses). On the other side, there was a big welcoming sign for the International Peace Park, which covers both Waterton Lakes National Park (Canada) and Glacier National Park (US).

We still had a little bit of a climb left before another glorious section of downhill! And, not much traffic from the crossing. Pretty smooth going until we turned onto highway 89 into the wind. By that time, we'd already covered 34 miles and were only a few miles further to a restaurant with huckleberry milkshakes. What a treat!

The ice cream kept us going for that final 9 miles against the wind to our hotel without air conditioning. Looking forward to a warm sleep tonight.