Day 18: Drive through Coeur d’Alene, ID and evening in West Glacier, MT

Miles driven to-date: 5,532
States visited to-date: 20


We awoke in our surprisingly nice hotel and had a relatively relaxed morning, taking advantage of having internet (and printer!) access and of course pilfering extra items from the continental breakfast to eat later on the road. We drove by the Gonzaga campus on the way out of town and both thought it was quite pretty. I learned that Spokane used to be spelled without the “e” which explains why it’s pronounced “Spoke-anne” instead of “Spoke-ayne.” It is also the biggest city between Seattle and Minneapolis, at least according to the Fairfield Inn’s propaganda.


We decided to stop for lunch in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho which was only about a half an hour outside of Spokane. It was an adorable town right on the waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene and the downtown streets were lined with cute shops. Of course we sought out the local brewpub:

I tried Huckleberry Ale as part of my beer sampler because huckleberry is the state berry of Idaho. I really liked it – it was similar to blueberry beer. We walked around for a bit and enjoyed the views of the water and marina (below) though the weather was very un-Sosa-like.

The drive into Montana was beautiful although it felt strange to be driving on I-90 which is of course the Mass Pike that we traverse all the time at home. Here are a couple of views we captured from the road:

As we got closer to Glacier National Park, I remembered that I had booked a hotel for the evening that I had found on the web, so I hoped the accommodations would be half-decent. Well . . . it was gorgeous! It was called the Belton Chalet and was built in 1910 so it had lots of old-fashioned charm. After being recently renovated to maintain that same style, it was designated a National Historic Landmark.

This photo shows the front of the building. Even better, the place was only a quarter mile from the entrance to Glacier.

Our room had its own balcony with two rocking chairs and looked out on the Tap Room which served several local brews. We headed there shortly for dinner. Steve tried buffalo meatloaf while I enjoyed a “Moose Drool” beer and huckleberry ice cream. We were treated to a beautiful sunset right outside the restaurant:

We both commented on the beautiful smell of the air. I joked that Yankee Candle should make a scent called “Montana.” We went to bed excited to explore the park in the morning!