Glacier National Park, Montana ( 7/23-7/30)

 A short day of driving brought us to the northern most point in our trip, West Glacier Village RV Park and Cabins. Albeit short, our picture window sized windshield provided sweeping views of Flathead Lake for miles as we drove.  

We arrived at the the cute little area of West Glacier Village.  It is a tourist area just outside the park entrance that has the campground and cabins, a gift shop, small market,  pub and cafe, ice cream shop and a rafting business all operated by the same hospitality company. Our first concern is, would we make it under this bridge...

Cute little truck in front of the Huckleberry shop.

Ruth is 13'2", we just made it. 

We settled into the campground which remained pretty full throughout our stay.  There were zero mature trees on the property as it is only 3 years old.  The forecast of 90 degree days and no rain during our visit was a little daunting.  There was a convenient bike path from the campground to the Village so we pedaled down for a cold beverage and to check out the area.  

Armed with our Going to the Sun Road pass (required between 6am and 5pm), the Gypsy Guide app, picnic lunch, backpacks and walking sticks we entered the park at around 6am with only a few cars in front of us and a loose hiking plan.  The stunning beauty and engineering marvel of the Going to the Sun Road can't really be described, it must be experienced.  None of my photos will do it real justice. The road had just been cleared of its final snow as recently as 3 weeks before our arrival and would close again at first snow which could be sometime in September.  The Gypsy Guide gave us quite a bit of history about the geology and the road construction which as interesting to hear as we drove. 

As we made our way to the top of the road at Logan's Pass, we had been thwarted at a couple of our planned hiking trailheads due to lack of parking.  We stopped at a few lesser traveled pull outs on the road.  It was disappointing, but we figured we would be able to get a spot at Logan's Pass since we had arrived at the park early. Boy, were we wrong.  Mike circled the parking lot at least half a dozen times before we gave up and moved on. 

We ended up finding a parking spot near the Virginia Falls trailhead which we grabbed up.  We had a lovely hike to a beautiful waterfall and caught a brief glimpse of a moose on our hike back.  This was also our first bear sighting, no pictures as they were pretty far away, but we could see them well with our binoculars.  We continued on to the end of the Going to the Sun Road.

We called an audible on our plans for the day and continued out of the St. Mary's park exit and drove to the Many Glacier entrance.  The road was under construction and slow going on dusty gravel for about 11 miles.  When we arrived at the Many Glacier Lodge area it was also very busy and we were informed by  ranger that parking may not be available.  

We continued on and Mike found a spot without too much waiting.  By then we were starving so we ate our lunch on the porch of the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn then proceeded to hike to Red Rocks Falls. We were told by fellow hikers that there were bears in the area, again , we saw none, but were treated with another moose sighting, those never get old.   We had a good first day in the park, but returning on the Going to the Sun Road in early evening proved to be long, slow and frustrating due to frightening drivers who rode their brakes on every curve, there were a lot of curves.

There was a terrific bike/hike trail from the West Village to the Apgar Village and Lake McDonald area which we rode a couple of times.  If you don't stop for ice cream at Eddie's for ice cream, you are missing out. We also enjoyed a whiskey tasting stop at Glacier Distillery and a cocktail and tapas stop at Josephine's next door.  A fun morning of pickleball at a lovely park in Whitefish rounded out our time not spent in the park. 

The Mule Kick was aptly named. 

Sometimes the smoke made for pretty skies.

We took a different tact for our second day Glacier National Park.  A 9:30am departure strategy suggested that the pre-dawn, no pass holder,  park entrants would be getting back to their cars and free up some of the parking we were shut out of on our first day.  We also had a boat ride on St. Mary's lake at 2:00pm so wanted to get a hike or two in beforehand. This strategy did not work for our first planned hike at Avalanche Lake, however, we scored a WIN when Mike, with the assistance of a random woman standing in the parking lot, got a spot at Logan's Pass.  We also had another closer encounter with a small brown grizzly bear who was wandering along the road, causing a major animal jam of cars.  We got good pics though...from the safety of the car.

It was getting pretty warm, but we ventured up to Hidden Lake overpass. The elevation brought us some cooler breeze and waterfalls provided some light mist as we arrived at Hidden Lake.  We had just enough time for our trip back down and the drive to St. Mary's Lake for our boat ride. 

The day was hot and not too breezy which made for an enjoyable boat ride on the Little Chief, built in 1928.  The captain also narrated the tour and shared many interesting facts about its geology, animal life and landscape.  The water was the most beautiful shade of blue. 

Our late afternoon drive back proved fortuitous as we finally snagged a parking spot for the Trail of the Cedars walk that we had hoped to do earlier that day.  It was a nicely paved, decked, shaded trail with a lovely waterfall at the end.  A nice ending to our stay at Glacier.   

Ruth's spot at Glacier