An All-American Independence Day

Sunday was the 4th July. We were looking for ways to celebrate and decided to attend the Polebridge 4th of July parade. Polebridge, Montana is a town of ~162 people. It it located right on the edge of Glacier National Park and is only 22 miles from the Canadian border. It is famous for the Polebridge Mercantile. This mercantile was founded in 1914 and has been operating continuously since. Every year they have a 4th of July parade and attracts a few thousand visitors. This year we were included among the visitors. 

We drove to Polebridge along the edge of Glacier. The road alternated between paved and gravel and was a little rough in some spots. Fortunately, we made it well before the parade start time - noon. The parade was small - it included 10ish vehicles, but what it lacked in size it made up for with enthusiasm. In addition to the parade there was also a flyover by an old WWII fighter plane. It circled around to fly over a few times. It was a great small town all-American parade. 

After the parade we visited the mercantile. We bought cookies and huckleberry bear claws. The bear claws were amazing. I loved all things huckleberry this trip.

When we were done in Polebridge we drove into Glacier via the Camas road entrance. While you are technically supposed to have a reservation to get in here (and we did have a reservation) we did not see any park rangers. If you were willing to drive on some rough roads it seemed like you could get into the park without a reservation. 

It seemed a little busier in the park today. We wanted to explore the Trail of the Cedars, but as we drove by all of the parking was taken. We drove a little further and then turned around on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. We were going to leave the park, but Debbie asked us to humor her. We turned into the parking area near Trail of the Cedars and sure enough someone was pulling out. We snagged a premium parking spot. 

The Trail of the Cedars is a nice little hiking loop. Right at the halfway point is a really cool waterfall cutting through the rock. We stayed and marveled at the water for a while. It was a pleasant little hike. 

By the time we finished the hike we were hungry. We drove back to Kalispell to find a place to eat. This turned out to be more difficult than we anticipated. Between it being a Sunday, a holiday, and the labor shortages around Kalispell because of the pandemic most places were closed. The ones that weren’t were operating at a lower capacity because they didn’t have enough staff. We ended up at MacKenzie River Pizza Co. It had a wait, but there weren’t many options at that point. Once we got in the food and service were both good. 

After dinner we stopped by Sweet Peaks. It is an ice cream shop that is supposed to have the best ice cream in Montana. I got a scoop of huckleberry ice cream - surprise, surprise. It was tasty. 

We stopped by the hotel and then Alison and I drove to the nearby community of Whitefish for a firework show. They launched the fireworks from a barge in the middle of Whitefish lake. It was a great show.