Glacier NP, MT to Mount Rainier NP, WA (Miles 5,708 - 6,333)

3 - 5 September 2014

After another great nights sleep in the tent we woke up to similar weather that we saw the last day at Yellowstone.  It looked like it was going to pour, so we quickly packed up our camp and hit the road.  We didn't get very far when it started to rain.  Now, rain isn't too bad except at this time the temperatures were in the low 50s and seemed to be dropping.  We made it just about 50 miles when we spotted a gas station and stopped to get warm.  At this time it seem impossible that we would be able to stay warm since our gloves were soaked and there was no way to keep our hands warm.  So...look on iPhone for hotel...find one less than 10 miles away...frozen, cold ride to Kalispell, Montanta...check into hotel...stay warm.  Oh...and believe it or not...there is a brewery here:

Kalispell Brewing Company, Kalispell, Montana.

Then...guess who walked it!  You got it...the sisters!

Our new friends.

Later on in Kalispell Brewing Company we met a father and daughter and wound up meeting up with them later in another bar in town.  Kalispell was a great, friendly, unplanned stop where I would definitely visit again.

The next morning we got up to better weather so we hit the road towards Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.  From Kalispell Mount Rainier is almost 600 miles away, so we knew we had one overnight stop.  Were might there be breweries...Spokane...so Spokane it is for the next overnight stop.  But first...there are a few breweries on the way to Spokane:

Kootenai River Brewing Company, Ferry, Idaho

Mad Bomber Brewing Company, Hayden, Idaho

Cool tasting tray at Kootenai River Brewing Company, Ferry, Idaho

Selkirk Abbey Brewery, Post Falls, Idaho

The beer at Selkirk Abbey Brewery was sooooo good.  I actually walked outside to see if there was a place we could pitch our tent so we can stay there and drink some more of the yummy, Belgium-style beer they brewed.  However, Mount Rainer was calling, so we had a snack of nuts of road the last half-hour to Spokane.

We got to our hotel in Spokane pretty late since we did stop at three breweries before getting there, so we only had time to go to one brewery in town:

12 String Brewing Company, Spokane, Washington

We did, however, manage to wake up the next day and find a nice brewery for lunch before leaving Spokane for Mount Rainier.

No-Li Brewhouse, Spokane, WA

And time for just one more brewery 175 miles down the road:

Iron Horse Brewery, Ellensburg, Washington

We managed to get to the campground at Mount Rainer just before dark.  Now that it is after Labor Day we figured it wouldn't be too hard to find a campsite...but we were wrong...all 112 campsites were taken.  So, we caught a glimpse of Mount Rainier and set off thinking that we would have to ride all the way into the closest town (which wasn't so close) and not be able to return the next day.

Then, about 5 miles after we left the park, we saw a National Forest Campground were we were able to pitch our tent with the plan to return to Mount Rainier the next day.  The cool part of this campground was that it was on the side of an active runway of Ranger Creek State Airport.  We didn't see any planes landing, but Tim was excited by the possibility.

STOCK IMAGE: Ranger Creek State Airport

Numbers Games
Total States Visited: 15 (New one: Washington)
Total Breweries Visited: 35 (New ones: Kalispell, Kootenai River, Mad Bomber, Selkirk Abbey, 12 String, No-Li, Iron Horse)
Total Miles Ridden: 6,333