Day 16: Smoke

Early this morning we packed up the RV in the rain and left West Yellowstone to head north to Glacier National Park. We drove for about 8 hours and arrived safely in West Glacier in the late afternoon. After we passed Missoula though we started smelling wildfire smoke and within minutes we were driving through thick smoke that made our eyes burn. We could barely see the outlines of mountains and could only imagine how breathtaking the scenery would be if we could actually see it. Unfortunately the smoke did not let up and 140 miles further north here in West Glacier we can still see and smell it. It was sunny when we arrived, but, per weather forecast, will be cloudy for the next three days. So now we will have overcast skies with wildfire smoke. I am so disappointed and am not sure how well we will be able to see in the park, but we will try to make the best of it. 
In addition, we found out that cars driving through the park on the "Going-to-the-Sun Road", the road which leads through the park, have a vehicle length restriction of 21 feet. We quickly measured Cliff's truck and were shocked to find out that it is 22 feet long. Since we were told that cars are measured and the road is too narrow and curvy for large vehicles, we assumed we would not be allowed to drive past the first 16 miles. That meant we had no vehicle to drive through Glacier National Park. I could not believe it. We drove from one corner of the country to another and now we would have bad weather conditions and no car. Thank God, we found a 24h rental car place, called at 10pm, and were able to find a rental car, which Cliff will pick up early tomorrow morning. What a day!