Glacier National Park

Driving into Glacier from the east, the giant monoliths rise abruptly out of the plains. Our approach was made even more dramatic by the hazy conditions caused by wildfire smoke. The mountains weren’t visible until we were well past Browning, Montana and approaching East Glacier. But when those mountain appeared, they were majestic and foreboding and addictive all at once. Glacier is a very unique place, as we were about to find out.

Read our Glacier itinerary

We felt like we earned our time in Glacier — the hard way. In late 2019 and early 2020, while planning this trip, we had the most difficult time figuring out Glacier — having never been there. But we think we booked and planned for the right combination of campgrounds, boat tickets, and shuttle rides to make it work. To get those highly sought-after campgrounds, we were online six months to the day of our bookings, the moment the site opened the reservations. For 2020, we had scored just what we wanted, but then Covid shut it all down. In fact, the loss of accommodations and access at Glacier was a major factor in our decision to post-pone our trip to 2021.

Fast forward to early 2021 and our re-planning of the Glacier experience. There was significant uncertainty throughout the process. To cut to the chase, the largest campground in the park, St. Mary, did not open to the public at all this summer. And, even six months out, we were unable to obtain reservations at any of the other campgrounds inside the park, despite trying for multiple days. Luckily, we snagged a spot at the KOA in West Glacier, which proved to be a great campground. Eventually, we also found one open day at Fish Creek (inside the park on the west side) and booked that for the night we arrived. We kept logging back on every few days to try to get in-park sites, but to no avail.

NPS also implemented a timed entry system for Glacier, which they called the “Going-to-the-Sun Road Entry Ticket.” These tickets were required to enter that portion of the park between 6am and 5pm. To acquire the tickets, we were online (at 4am local time) to book 60-days prior to our first day in the park. That morning, we watched 1300 tickets sell out in 13 minutes — we were lucky to get one of them, which was then good for seven days of entry.

On top of all that, NPS created a reservation system for shuttle use, which is too complicated to explain here. But we snagged a few shuttle reservations anyway. (In a future blog, we plan to address all of the technical visitation issues we faced in all the parks with more details. When that’s posted, we’ll provide a hyperlink here.)

So, after an eight-hour drive from Mammoth at Yellowstone — stopping in Bozeman and Helena — we arrived at East Glacier, under the watch of the aforementioned monolithic mountains.

Our plan was to hike Running Eagle Falls at Two Medicine, then drive 1.5 hours to Fish Creek Campground, only to wake in the morning and drive 2.5 hours (plus an expected 40 minute construction delay) to Many Glacier, where we had pre-paid boat tickets at 8:30am.

It was time to call an audible.

Adjacent to the entrance to Two Medicine, we saw Red Eagle campground. This no-frills campground is run by the Blackfeet people and had plenty of space that night. So, as guilty as we felt for leaving a highly-sought-after park campsite unused at Fish Creek, Red Eagle suited us perfectly.

Relieved and ready to explore, we took the very short hike to Running Eagle Falls. In the spring, this is an impressive waterfall with with significant flow coming from glacial melt in the mountains above. As the melt decreases, the falls shrink, but only become more beautiful. The upper falls — which overlaps and obscures the lower falls — disappear, revealing a shorter, wider waterfall that appears to come out of the side of the mountain, essentially following through and out of a cave. It’s truly magical.

The girls waded in the ice cold water and basked on the rocks overlooking the falls. We took time to chat with a local man who identified himself as indigenous, and provided us with some lore about the area and the falls in particular, which are sacred to the Blackfeet.

If you’ve even just sat at a place and felt at peace, that’s Running Eagle Falls.

The next morning we made the stressful drive to Many Glacier. It was stressful because of major renovations occurring on the road leading into the Many Glacier entrance. We just made it in time for our boat. (Thankfully we had made that decision to stay on the east side of the park.) The shuttle, offered by Glacier Park Boat Company, crossed Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine, with a quarter-mile hike in between. The boat drops hikers at the trail head to the Grinnell Glacier hike.

The hike from the boat dock to Grinnell Glacier is 7.6 miles roundtrip and about 1,900 feet in elevation gain. It’s not a technical hike, but it’s also not for the feint of heart. The reward at the end is a glacier and a glacial lake that took our breath away. Not to mention, on the way up we had sweeping views of the aqua blue Grinnell Lake with Angel Wing’s peak in the background. We also had to walk through a waterfall the falls onto the ledge trail, which was quite an adventure for the girls.

A return boat and a little exploration of the Many Glacier Hotel — built to look like an Alpine chalet — and we were on the road to West Glacier. We chose to drive around the south side of the park and save our first experience on Going-to-the-Sun Road for the next morning.

Day three took us into the heart of the park. Our plan was to drive all the way across Going-to-the-Sun Road to explore sites on the east side of Logan Pass (the high point of the road) and the Continental Divide. We hiked the trail to St. Mary’s Falls and Virginia Falls (3.0 miles roundtrip and 600 feet), stopping for a long while in between to play around in the smaller cascades. This is an easy hike and highly recommended for anyone.

We visited the St. Mary Visitor Center for the obligatory Junior Ranger materials and cooked our lunch at Sun Point. We also happened upon our first grizzly bear sighting — a large male, just sitting down pulling berries from bushes not far from the side of the road. It was a relatively safe encounter, which pleased us. In fact, we turned around and ended up driving past him three times, just to get a better photo.

A Grizzly Bear in East Glacier National Park

On the way back to the west side, we found parking at the Logan Pass Visitor Center. (When we’d passed in the morning, the lot was full and Rangers were prevented cars from entering.) So, we decided to visit, and we somehow ended up walking a mile out onto the Highline Trail. Here we passed male big horn sheep posing on rocks and a family of mountain goats just above the trail.

On the return, the mountain goats decided they wanted to use the trail for themselves. So, we found ourselves scampering up the cliffside to give them enough room to pass. They seem like harmless animals, but with their dexterity on the mountain side and those pointy horns, we figured they should have the right of way.

The next morning was an early rise, because we wanted to find parking near Avalanche Creek. We were lucky to get one of the last spots near the picnic areas across the road — convenient, because we could make and eat our breakfast there. We hiked Trail of Cedars and connected to the Avalanche Creek Trail all the way to Avalanche Lake (4.0 miles roundtrip and 700 feet).

After lunch at the same picnic area, we dipped our toes into McDonald Creek. A toe dip became a wade, which became a walk out to an island, which led to bringing chairs out to the island and spending the afternoon playing and swimming in the glacial creek. We were mostly alone, save for a passing fly fisherman. And it was yet another example of the joy that can be found when we were willing to break our plans and embrace spontaneity.

We had foregone our reservations on the St. Mary’s shuttle a few days prior, so the next morning we decided to use the shuttle reservations we’d booked out of Apgar. We got to Apgar Village a little early and were pleased to stumble up a Ranger-led program about wildlife in the park. The girls were both eager to hear about the animals and how to interact safely with them.

We then headed over to the visitor center where the girls were officially sworn in a Glacier Junior Rangers before we boarded the shuttle. The shuttle allowed for a different view of Going-to-the-Sun Road (especially for the person who had previously been the driver). However, the shuttle is a bit slow and limits stopping ability. It also requires a transfer at Avalanche to a smaller shuttle.

We eventually made it to Logan Pass. We decided to eat our lunch near the visitor center, before starting the Hidden Lake hike. The hike to the Hidden Lake Overlook (3.0 miles and 500 feet) is mostly boardwalk leading up gradually from Logan Pass to — you guessed it — an overlook of Hidden Lake. It’s well worth the stroll.

We saw deer, big horn sheep, and mountain goats along the way. Much to our chagrin, our delay to eat lunch may have cost us a close encounter with a grizzly sow and her two cubs. People coming down the trail were telling wild stories. We spotted the three bears, but they were already a few hundred yards away. Nonetheless, through the binoculars we were able to make out the young cubs frolicking in the stream.

After the shuttle ride down the mountain, we popped back into Apgar Village with the express purpose of getting Eddie’s ice cream. For what it’s worth, we consider ourselves ice cream connoisseurs, and Eddie’s is top notch ice cream!

One more night at the KOA in West Glacier, which turned out the be a really nice campground, by the way. The campsites inside parks tend to be a bit spread out, wooded, and somewhat private. The KOA placed us closer to our neighbors. For us that was, at first, odd — when one neighbor hung his hammock in the middle of our site — but ultimately wonderful, because an incredibly friendly family with three similarly-aged girls was set up near by. It gave us a chance to socialize with people other than ourselves for a few nights in a row. It was a blast! Also, the KOA had a pool, hot tub, laundry, and hand-scooped ice cream! Not getting the reservations in the park turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Again, six days in Glacier National Park was not a lot, but it was sufficient for this trip. We’ve got plenty to come back for in future years, if we’re lucky. For now, it is onto North Cascades.

North Cascades National Park

Yellowstone National Park