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My favourite riding spot for the last several years has been Glacier National Park. It is a mountainous wilderness area bordering southern Alberta and northern Montana. Part of the Rocky Mountains , but this area is far less travelled because it is somewhat remote and awkward to get to. But great for bikers. In early May I try to get there each year not only to get the last of the snow, but the wild life are just waking up.
Waterton National Park is on the Canadian side and is highlighted by the Princess of Wales Hotel , located just outside the township of Waterton , Alberta.
Two of us started out , only one made it. It did get really cold and wet on the first day- just got to be prepared. It is about a nine hour ride there and back so not too bad.


We had massive wild fires all last summer in various parts of the west. The part that was concerning for me was the fires were threatening the Hotel. Built in 1927 , it was part of a chain of hotels built by the railway to encourage wealthy Europeans to holiday here to view the mountains and glaciers.


However. The hotel is only open in the summer months, May to September. Not long to pay the bills for up keep. If it ever burnt down , would it ever be rebuilt.

The mountain sheep are plentiful at this time of year , as they come into town looking for new grass



Had the place almost to myself- with the hotel not yet open.

www.glacierparkcollection.com/lodging/prince-of-wales-hotel/

Wow, thanks for the impressions. The landscape reminds me a bit of Switzerland, and I would love to get more pictures from other locations of the world.

What is your favorite are to rid-out ?

regards,
Holger

"The landscape reminds me a bit of Switzerland,"
I think that was the key to the succes of the whole venture way back when- Europeans like this kind of environment as it reminded them of home , and here there is just a lot more of it. Today , I could ride my bike for 2 weeks every day and not ride the same road twice. And that riding only goes a hundred miles into the the USA part.
This weekend , I'm meeting my wife for a weekend at "Many Glacier " appropriately named. On the American side. Another hotel built by the railways , but there was never a railroad link to it - this one was tough to get to in the 1920's - it was by boat and river. This hotel is even more grand and imposing - and even more so because of the amount of effort and determination it took to build it where it is . It is really is in the middle of nowhere. I'll post next week.

Great photos - truly impressive, must be awesome to ride amongst that imposing landscape. Thanks for posting.

Well , you pay your money , make the plans , and if the weather doesn't cooperate , you go any way.
Left Friday afternoon after work early and one hour into the ride the rain started, the temperature drops to about 6 degrees . Somewhat expected in view of where I'm going but by Saturday morning with it is still raining , I decided to abandon the bike at the first hotel where I was meeting my wife , leave it there locked up and go the rest of the way in the car with her.
The unique things about here in the wild west are animals, buildings, wide wide open spaces, few people, mountains and long distances.
Few people realise North America has its own Antelope - the Big Horn- .They only exist in a small band of land west of Calgary , Alberta to about Swift Current , Saskatchewan and south across the Montana border down into Yellow stone Park


Obviously a praire animal along with deer and the mighty Bison.

These animals are on private land next to "Head Smahed in Buffalo Jump" provincial park. In days of old, the Indians drove hundreds of animals up the hills behind this field, and panic the animals to jump off the cliff , and salvage the dead animals at the bottom.


This hotel is in Glacier National. "Many Glacier " . It's had huge renovations done to it. The road to the hotel is a bit of a challenge as it crosses Indian land first, which is in quite bad condition in a lot of places , then onto State owned land where the park takes its$50 orr so entry fee, the road improves on asphalt until it comes to an end - and whol'a , the hotel.

The two bikes, geared-up, brings back some great memories !