sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet....

...and we're on the road to Glacier National Park noted in the travelling moleskin as the Glacier Loop which sounds a tad like a quick nip to the shops and back. Back blipping on return to Hamilton we've covered at least 1400kms ...some loop hey?

Day One and we're heading north through the Flathead Indian Reservation to nightfall and destination Coram and our first night on 'the loop' where a surprise awaits.
In fact there are surprises all the way with the unexpected Ewam Garden of 1000 Buddhas where a Peace day is being celebrated in a swirl of maroon robes and hooting conch shells as misty rain falls promising to clear the smoky haze hiding the mountains
An 'Ommmm' later and Flathead Lake beckons.
The remnant of an ancient dammed glacial lake and the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, fed by the Flathead and Swan Rivers and deep with an average depth of 50m it is peppered with islands and fringed with beaches and land that grows the famed Flathead Cherries.
Onto Big Fork and a tip that huckleberries are going to be the wild fruit of choice on this journey... and not just for the bears.
Syrups, jams and taffy, beers,wines and even a whiskey claim the berry as a flavouring.

And so to the surprise. A glamping night under canvas but for me not any old canvas but  a tipi!!! where the entrance faces east to welcome the morning sun.

After dinner of elk meatloaf (and yes huckleberries)and as lanterns were extinguished, rain chattered in the Lodge Pole pines and tapped on the canvas and so ended day one on the loop.
How cool is that!