Flathead lake is a large lake south and east of Kalispell. It is a nice enough lake, but like Kalispell, really has no place on a Glacier itinerary.
What it does have is lame hype - hype of a lameness that isn't approached even by advertizers of fad exercise gear. A paraphrasis of an actual conversation:
Me: Nice lake I've been driving past.
Interlocutor: It's the biggest lake west of the Mississippi.
Me: Really? Bigger than Lake Powell?
Interlocutor: Oh, I mean the biggest natural lake.
Me: Oh, I see. So Flathead Lake is bigger than Lake Winnipeg? Or Great Slave Lake? Or Great Bear Lake?
Interlocutor: Oh, I mean in the United States!
Me: Oh, so Flathead Lake is bigger than the Great Salt Lake?
Interlocutor: The biggest freshwater lake, yeah.
Me: I see.
At this point there was a short pause in the conversation.
Me: So, what you are saying is that Flathead Lake is the biggest natural, freshwater lake, in the United States, west of the Mississippi?
Interlocutor: Uhh, yeah, that's right.
That's really an accomplishment, having the foresight to build a convenience store near the shores of the biggest natural, freshwater lake, in the United States, west of the Mississippi. I should have mentioned that I live in the middle of the only desert east of the Huachucas and west of the Mules, north of Mexico and south of the Cochise County line. But, it just didn't occur to me.
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