The last day of this segment of the de Tocqueville Tour started out from Great Falls under clear blue skies with a chilly wind from the southwest. After a short run on I-15 we picked up US-89 north. US-89 is a great road. It runs from the Canadian Border all the way down to Flagstaff Arizona – with a short interruption at Yellowstone Park. It has many segments great for motorcycling.
As we angled up through Browning, the winds became stronger and our ‘incident angle’ became worse, at times heading into 60 mph headwinds. At one point I got a false “low oil level” alarm which later cleared, ostensibly due to the persistent and steady lean I had on the bike due to the cross wind. At times my helmet was almost ripped off, at other times it was ‘locked’ into a position where I couldn’t move it. Not exactly fun.
Offsetting the wind was the otherwise clear blue skies and spectacular scenery as we drove up the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. (You might add that we were blown away by the scenery as well).
At Browning we took MT-464 to Babb (as an alternative to US-89) This route was quicker and ran more to the North so the winds were not as bad. At times we ran with the wind and found it refreshingly and eerily silent. But the last stretch was into the wind again and we paid the price.
Rejoining US-89 for a short section, we veered off on MT-17 to approach the US/ Canada Border Crossing at Chief Mountain (which had only been re-opened after it’s extended closure due to COVID). This route was more sheltered from the wind and offered up great views of Chief Mountain and the other Rockies. We entered Glacier National Park (which together with Waterton National Park on the Canadian side makes the ‘international peace park’.)
MT-17 morphs into Hwy 6 on the Alberta side; a beautiful road with great asphalt, speedy sweepers and great views of the mountains in Waterton National Park. Following Hwy 6 north we had great views of the prairie butting up against the foothills of the Rockies with the Rockies rising on our left.
Back in Alberta
After a refuel at Pincher Creek we detoured around on RR-507 through Beaver Mines before rejoining Hwy-22 at Lundbreck The ‘Cowboy Trail’ up to Longview is one of the more beautiful rides in Alberta, winding its way through ranchlands with the ridge of Rockies always in view on the left. At Black Diamond we stopped for our last coffee break and then finished the trip with a final run through backroads west of Okotoks. A light drizzle greeted us as we arrived back in Calgary – phase 2 of the de Tocqueville tour was at an end.