Left n back Again - A Continental Road Trip - US 89 Going-to-the-sun highway - September 2004

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Montana - US 89 / Glacier National Park [Locator Map]

US 89
Choteau to St. Mary, MT

Going-to-the-Sun highway
Glacier National Park, MT

An open prairie drive with twisties, and an awesome mountain drive with some more twisties!

Sections Covered:
Choteau, MT to St. Mary, MT to West Glacier, MT

Length:
166km + 81km (100 + 48 miles)

Ratings:		Rankings:
Scenic Impact	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	Overall Score: 7.5
Twistiness	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	Fun-to-Drive: 6.9
Surface Quality	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Traffic	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	Rankings and ratings explained

Montana - US 89 / Glacier National Park [Detail Map]

This probably should have been two separate entries, since these are really two different roads with different characteristics. However, they do connect to one another, and if you are coming from the southeast, this is a nice combination route, and so I've included them together.

Going-to-the-Sun road

US89 from Choteau to Browning is a lightly travelled well-built highway with expansive far-ranging views over rolling prairie, with the front range of the Rockies always visible. The road is generally straight, but occasionally there are little spurts of twisties as the road descends down into small drainages and then back out.

Grassland Twisties (US89)

From Browning to St. Mary, US89 gets closer to the moutains and therefore into more hilly terrain. There are some more extensive tighter twisties here, and if you've just driving in from the plains, it is a fun change! (there can be a lot of tourist traffic on this stretch, though).

Going-to-the-sun highway is a premier scenic road of North America. It traverses one of the most beautiful mountain parks, Glacier National Park. The eastern side is not that twisty, but is awesomely scenic. The west side is much more twisty. There can be a lot of traffic on this road, and, being a national park road, is not speed-posted very highly. Pavement quality is generally pretty good.

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