Glacier National Park

Our previous post covered our visits to three national parks located in the Rocky Mountains. This post will cover the final national park in this mountain range, Glacier National Park. Before we get to the highlights of our stay in the area of the park, we need to cover our journey getting there.

The Road to Glacier

Due to traditional late opening of Glacier, we had a couple weeks to get there from our stay in Yellowstone. In hindsight, we probably should have stayed a couple more days in Yellowstone but we enjoyed our leisurely trek to northwestern Montana. Our first stop along the way was a dry camping spot along the Gallatin River called Moose Creek Flats Campground. The campground was 8 miles north of Big Sky, Montana and about 35 miles south of Bozeman. The highlight of this stop was a wonderful hike to Lava Lake, located just 5 miles north of our campground. The hike was a 5.5 mile out and back with the payoff being a small mountain lake. This trail appeared to be more crowded than any trail we hiked in the national parks thus far!

The lowlights of our stay at Moose Creek Flat Campground was the 3.5 days of rain with temperatures in the 40’s. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem but we had no hookups and there was zero cell signal for both Verizon and AT&T. Lucky for us, Beehive Basin Brewery in Big Sky where we could get cell signal and take care of our online needs while enjoying a beer or two.

From Moose Creek Flats Campground, we traveled to Butte, Montana to spend a few nights at the local KOA. This was a relatively nice KOA with a bike trail bordering the property. We thought this would be great for some nice bike riding but quickly learned that the trail wasn’t long enough to make it worthwhile. So we decided it was time to start running again, which we hadn’t done since leaving Amy’s sister’s place at the end of May.

While at the KOA, we took a long road trip where we went north to Helena and then west on route 12 and then on Montana route 1, all to look for some place to stay next. We found a place we liked, but it was completely full and was a first come/first serve fish and wildlife campground. We decided that all the campgrounds we looked at were full because it was the weekend and figured we’d chance it on Monday and hope for the best.

We arrived at the Stuart Mill Bay Campground shortly after 11:00 AM on Monday and found the best site in the campground available! We couldn’t have been happier. We were right on the shore of Georgetown Lake and were excited to get some kayaking in while enjoying the quiet solitude of our campsite. Once again, we relied on our solar panels to recharge our lithium batteries. So glad we invested in that setup which allows us to go off grid anytime we want.

We had one overnight stop left before making our way to Kalispell near Glacier National Park. We really wanted to spend the night at Big Sky Brewery, a Harvest Host location and our stay here did not disappoint. The beer in the tasting room was fantastic and we left with a few crawlers and Dan had to get a Moose Drool t-shirt, themed after their famous brown ale. The next morning we hooked up and headed further north.

Kalispell, Whitefish, and Glacier National Park

We learned about Rocky Mountain ‘Hi’ Campground from a couple we briefly met at Henry’s Lake State Park in Idaho, so we decided to book a week here. We had already booked the 4th of July weekend at the Whitefish/Kalispell North KOA and we had a reservation for St. Mary’s East Glacier KOA for after the 4th but figured more time in the area wouldn’t hurt. This campground turned out to be a hidden gem and we would highly recommend it to anyone planning to visit Glacier and needing a nice, relatively inexpensive place to stay.

We had read stories and seen signs that suggested you get into the park early in order to obtain a parking spot. With the Going-to-the-Sun road closed past Avalanche Campground, this was even more important. With bad weather predicted for the middle of the week, we decided to get up early and do some hiking while we could. We set an alarm for 5:00 AM the first day and 4:45 the second day. Our first hike was to Snyder Lake and the hike was nice but the views at the end were less than spectacular.

On day 2, we drove all the way to Avalanche Campground and arrived in the area at about 6:10 AM to find the parking lots already filling up. Luckily the campground was closed to camping but open to parking, so we parked in one of the campsites, which worked out well for our “Big Ass” truck. The hike to Avalanche Lake was much more enjoyable and the payoff at the end far more spectacular. There were a lot more people on this hike and we were glad to have gotten an early start.

After a couple of days of rain, the weather was supposed to be better on Thursday, so we got up early once again and went to the park for another hike. The hiking choices were pretty limited with the road being closed at Avalanche Campground, so we opted for a relatively easy hike near the northern end of Jackson Lake. We figured once the hike was over, we’d stop at various pull offs to check out the scenery. The hike was quite muddy as it followed the same trail that the horse rides use and we just had 2 solid days of rain. Unfortunately, the rain wasn’t done as it picked up again while we were hiking and was pretty steady by the time we were done. We called it a day and returned to our campground to dry out and prepare for our move to the KOA, a mere 30 minute drive away.

We got permission to check in early at the KOA and we were glad we did. The campground roads were very tight and in order to approach our site from the proper direction, we had to drive through the park. It was very wooded and hilly with roads that were only 1 to 1.5 lanes wide. Making turns under such conditions can be a challenge when pulling a 40′ 5th wheel that is over 13′ tall. Other than being a little unlevel, our site wasn’t too bad and getting situated was fairly straight forward. Once setup, we drove into Whitefish to check out the town and get some huckleberry ice cream.

With the Going-to-the-Sun road closed beyond Avalanche Campground, we decided to do what a lot of other people were doing, ride our bikes on the road while it was closed to vehicle traffic. Are we glad we did! Our original plan was to bike as far as “The Loop” and turn around, a roughly 8 mile ride each way. Along the way to “The Loop”, we met several other bikers while we were waiting for a couple of bears to get off the road. The said they were planning to go all the way to Logan Pass. We weren’t aware that doing so was an option and immediately decided we should try. The road gets steeper after “The Loop” and it was another 8 miles from there to Logan Pass. We were determined to make it to the top and, even though we ended up walking our bikes for over 5 miles, we did make it.

By walking the bikes, we were able to enjoy the scenery on the way up much more so than had we struggled pedaling our way up. This turned out to be a good thing because the scenery passed by quickly on the way down and, besides, Amy said she couldn’t look at the scenery and needed to concentrate on bike riding down the steep grade. Rather serendipitously, Dan had purchased a new GoPro a few days earlier and had it attached to his bike for the ride down. We’ve provided a video of the ride down. We had over 50 minutes of footage that we’ve managed to cut down to under 7 minutes. If you can watch this on a big screen, it will be worth it to experience the grandeur of the scenery.

Although it was quite the challenge getting our bikes to Logan Pass, riding the bikes down that famous road, with no fears of oncoming traffic, was quite a treat. What had been a so-so visit to Glacier National Park quickly became a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime experience. We will cherish these memories for years to come.