As you come near to the lower edge of Glacier National Park in Montana, on Highway 2, you cross over the Continental Divide at Marias Pass. The pass is named for the nearby river, and it is believed the river was named by Meriwether Lewis after his cousin, Maria. The Blackfeet called the pass, the “Backbone Pass”, and used it to cross the mountains into the plains to hunt bison. The pass, at 5,216 feet, is the lowest crossing of the Continental Divide in Montana.
It’s hard to realize that water flowing west from the Divide eventually finds its way to the Pacific Ocean, and water flowing east eventually flows all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
Monument Square sits at the Marias Pass rest stop.
The largest monument is in commemoration of Theodore Roosevelt, the president who made forest conservation a national policy. Other memorials commemorate John F. Stevens, a civil engineer for the Great Northern Railroad, and William H. “Slippery Bill” Morrison, who donated the land for the memorial.
When we stopped here on our 2004 trip, we photographed our rig with the monument in the background.
Five years later, here we are again. What a lot has changed in our lives during that time, including the rig. We have gone from land based homeowners to full timers.
The road from Marias Pass west is very scenic.
The end of the road today was in Hungry Horse at the Canyon RV park where we will spend a week with friends.
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