Glacier National Park

Summer vacation and time for a family trip! It was difficult planning this one to Glacier, because all the sites and people said the same thing - it's all good, there's no best hike. It was hard to plan anyway, because you have to have a vehicle registration to enter the park (we didn't have one), and it was iffy if the Going to the Sun Road was going to be open anyway. So we got a place, rented a car, got flights, scheduled horseback riding, and decided to figure out the rest when we were there. It all worked out!

Day One

We flew from Detroit to Kalispell, Montana. No delays - perfect. This was the first time the boys had flown since 2020, and they were excited. The car rental was 50 steps from the airport, there was no line at Thrifty, and it took them about three minutes to hand over the keys. If flying and car rental were always like this, I'd travel twice as much!

We loaded up with groceries in Kalispell (there aren't grocery stores where we were staying) and drove right to Glacier National Park. We went on a hike called Appistoki Falls and Scenic Point Hike in the Two Medicine area of the park.

As soon as we got out, we saw a mountain goat and a bighorn sheep right at the trailhead! It was a good start. 

This hike had was about 3 miles to the top, lots of elevation climbing up the side of a mountain, and you could see really far - mountains and water, and waterfalls trickling down from melting snow. There were also flowers blooming the whole way. The waterfall was a dramatic cliff. There were twisty, white, dead trees the whole way. Great view of the lake and mountains. 

Cole had gotten hot, so he'd stuffed his sweatshirt into the hole of a dead log, planning on picking it up on the way home. When we went back...it wasn't there! We were all so surprised, since hikers usually don't steal things. Cole said he had seen an animal hole by the log, so maybe an animal took it. We made jokes about seeing a bear wearing it.

When we got down to the trailhead, Cole's sweatshirt was hanging on a sign. Hooray! He took it down and noticed it had two holes in it and it was wet. There was a man getting into his car, and I asked him if he'd put the sweatshirt there. 

"Yes, a marmot almost got it," he said. "I saw him dragging it across the path, so I grabbed it from him. Animals out here will take anything."

Ha! We drove to East Glacier, checked into our Airbnb house, and ate at Whistle Stop in town. We sat outside and had a view of the mountains.

Day Two

Since we didn't have a vehicle pass, we had to get to the park early, since you don't need one 6am-3pm. We left our house shortly after 4:00 a.m. and made it into the park by 5:30 a.m. It was like we were the only people in the world! The mountains and water were pink and purple as the sun rose. 

We stopped at Avalanche Falls trailhead for that hike, and we were the only people the entire way there. We hiked along a rushing river, we saw falls, and then came the big reveal - Avalanche Lake, which was surrounded by mountains, and is clear, still, and reflected them. It was gorgeous. Some other people came down then, which was great, because they took our picture for us. It was a couple, and she said she lived in Kalispell but this was her first time at Glacier. Wow!

On the hike back, there were a lot of people coming in, and I was glad we'd gotten an early start.

At 4:00 a.m. I had checked to see what part of Going to the Sun Road was open, because it hadn't yet opened for the year completely due to snow. We decided to see how far we could drive on it until it ended. 

We kept going and going...driving on mile high cliffs, with waterfalls on one side of you, and certain death on the other. You could see forever, since you were so high. My mom told me when she was here she was cowering on the floorboards because it was so scary. I got it! I wished I were driving because I'd be less certain I was going to drive over a cliff, but of course Kris did great. 

We went past a point and I noticed we had passed where they said the road was closed - which meant we could go to the hike I wanted to do.

We parked at Logan Pass Visitor Center and walked to the Hidden Lake trailhead. There was SNOW! And not a little snow - a lot of snow that was kind of melty, so when you walked it in you slipped. It was pretty challenging to do, since there were a lot of people here, and they were all slipping and sliding all over.

I'd worn a Michigan State shirt, and a family talked to me about when they went to Michigan. I asked where they were from, and they said Helena in Montana.

"I got the text at 7:00 a.m. that the road had opened! So we left the house by 7:20 a.m.," she said. "That's the only way we were able to park here - usually it's too busy, but people didn't know until then."

"It opened for the season today?" I said.

"Yes!" she said. "You are lucky. I remember one year it didn't open until July 4!"

Yay, what lucky timing! We continued the 1.5 miles up in the snow and made it to Hidden Lake, which actually looked like three lakes surrounded by mountains. We ate our lunch there.

On the way down, we made jokes about sledding down it. We saw someone slide down - not sure if they were trying to or not. Cole saw him and said, "I'm doing it," and immediately took off sliding down. 

We laughed and looked down at him. Cole yelled up to Ty and asked if he could grab his phone which fell out of his pocket on the way down. Ty did, much to our entertainment and that of the people around us.

"I'm not doing that," Max said. Then he, too, took off and slid down.

We met up at the bottom and saw a herd of bighorn sheep. 

"I started counting them and immediately fell asleep," Ty said.

We drove the rest of Going to the Sun Road, stopping along the way at Jackson Glacier, Wild Goose Island, and other beautiful places. 

We ate in St Mary at the Snowgoose Grille, which had giant windows toward the mountains. I had the bison quesadillas.

Day Three

We got up early to go horseback riding with Swan Mountain Outfitters. (They sent us a pass for Going to the Sun Road to bypass the reservation issue.)

There was construction on the road and we had to stop for a long time. I was glad we left early. We walked around the St Mary Lodge, which was beautiful, and threw rocks in the water.

At 11:00 a.m., we went to horseback ride all along Lake McDonald trail. We went over a bridge, and along a river, and through a tunnel, and through woods. It rained a little most of the time, and we got kind of cold by the end, but all of us really enjoyed it! The girls working there, the horses, and the scenery were great. Very different activity for us. Highly recommend.

We drove on Going to the Sun Road to go home again, but this time it was sleeting! I said to Kris, “Why is this so terrifying?” He said, “Because we’re on the edge of a cliff and the wind is blowing.” Ha! We made it home and went out to eat in East Glacier at The Peak Restaurant, which was really good.

Day Four

We saw wild horses on the drive to the Iceberg Lake trailhead! This was a 10-mile total hike, 5 each way. This was our favorite hike of the trip. We saw two moose right away, and one million wildflowers, and so many varieties. We walked over 32 (me) or 120 (Max) waterfalls, depending on how you counted it. It was sweeping vistas the whole way…and there was almost no one else on the trail!

Right when we got there, a man was leaving the trail, and he was very shaken. He showed us a picture of a grizzly bear on his phone and said he’d done everything wrong – stopped to take a picture, was hiking alone, and then when the bear charged him, his bear spray canister broke. He said we might find the pieces on the trail. We did, and we watched for bears (and had our own bear spray) and were disappointed when we didn’t see one!

We got to a river and four people were in the process of working on a bridge (basically two heavy boards) and they told us we should walk across the river and they might be done by the time we came back. So we took off our socks and shoes to walk across. It was slippery, but the hardest part was it was so cold that you had to go fast before your feet froze. There was snow on the ground.

We got to Iceberg Lake and it was unlike any place I’ve been. Mountains on every side, snow, and filled with blue and white icebergs. It was so perfect. We took turns standing on them, trying not to fall in. We ate lunch there and enjoyed the scenery. The hike back seemed short.

We stopped for ice cream (huckleberry, they love it here) and then went back on Going to the Sun Road to see some more sights. We looked at Sunrift Gorge, which is right off the road. We hiked to Baring Falls and could walk right up to it. We stopped at Sun Point and admired the view. We said goodbye to the park and had dinner at Serrano’s in East Glacier (not worth it, skip this one.)

Every night we played cards in our Airbnb, laughed a lot, and went to bed early, because every morning was an early one!

Day Five

I went running in the morning from our place and saw the golf course, the lodge, and …water and mountains! Truly a beautiful place. Downtown Kalispell had a lot to see, especially the Western Store, which had more boots and hats than I’ve seen anywhere, plus a basement full of antiques, and a soda shop. We actually purchased things. We had lunch at Bias Brewery (it was great), then headed to the airport. No delays on the way home either.

This was one of my favorite vacations. I got to do exactly what I wanted with the people I love in one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen.