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The next morning we were off to Glacier Park West Entrance. We looked up the Ranger Station to buy a license and pick up a little local knowledge. We were pleasantly surprised to find that a license wasn’t required to fish in the park. One of the Rangers gave us some tips on fishing the Park.

We drove down a little lane to an old bridge where the McDonald River flowed into the Flathead River. The area was beautiful, but the fishing was a little slow. We fished both the McDonald and Flathead and caught a few small trout.

We headed up the road past the beautiful McDonnell Lake to an area where the McDonnell river was above the lake. Surrounded by high rugged mountains, the river was gin clear with azure blue and deep purple-black pools. The banks were lined with brush and the river was filled with large downfall trees and root wads. The gravel on the shore was made up of pastel color rocks. Burgundy, yellow, green & tan. Undoubtedly the most beautiful trout stream I’d ever seen.

Drifting a Stimulator under the brush along the shore and sweeping the face of fallen logs produced several nice cutthroat and rainbows.

Proceeding thru the park we started up the "Road to the Sun". Barely two lanes wide, the road is carved into the vertical face of a solid rock wall. Large vehicles are not allowed. The road was built in the 30’s and is a marvel of construction. We spent a little time at the top of the pass at the Glacier Park Visitors Center, then down the other side to the East Entrance and the St. Mary’s River.

We stopped at the St. Mary’s and fished up stream of the bridge. Again found several smaller trout.

We drove around the south end of the park back to Kalispell and southwest back toward I-90 on two lane blacktop roads through the mountains. A beautiful drive. As evening came on, the sky filled with thick black clouds and the lightning lit the skies. The lighting was so close, bright & often that you could read by the light in the truck. The skies opened up and it poured buckets of rain.

We made it to I-90, then on to spend the evening in Coeur d’ Alene.

The next morning we drove back to Seattle. So ended the First "Fish all the Best Rivers of the West before you get too old to do so" Trip and the beginning of a Tradition of Western Fishing Trips.