Glacier
National Park
Glacier National Park is called the crown of the continent, stretching across the continental divide with an ecosystem containing flora and fauna that are relatively untouched. Lakes, mountains, and valleys host grizzlies, mountain goats, moose, and wolverines. Though declining because of global climate change, the Park possesses 35 named glaciers, a reminder of the powerful forces of nature that shaped the landscape. No trip to Glacier is complete without a drive of Going to the Sun Road, which connects the Eastern and Western sections of the Park. Perhaps the best gift Glacier has to offer is many miles of trails and square miles of backcountry area.
In an attempt to dip a toe into the many adventures offered by Glacier, the Park-to-Park Tour will spend five days across multiple sections of the Park. Hiking in Two Medicine and Many Glacier will be complemented by a multi-stop journey across Going to the Sun Road. In West Glacier, Avalanche Lake and Lake McDonald call. We won’t have the chance to stay at the fabled Granite Park Chalet this trip, but we’ll be back.
Itinerary
We are presenting our itinerary as we lived it. Not the plan, but rather what we were actually able to accomplish. Naturally there are some missed goals and some serendipitous surprises. We always rolled with the punches and made the best out of our time in the national parks. Below we have included some notes that explain how the itinerary changed from what we had in mind.
It’s important to know that these plans were made to suit the abilities and interests of two young girls aged 9 and 11. We feel confident that any family on their “Every Kid Outdoors Summer” (4th grade) could handle this itinerary. For hikes, we have listed the distance, elevation gain, and time that we tracked, which may differ from published (or actual) measurements.
Day 1
Morning
Driving from Yellowstone to Glacier
Afternoon
Two Medicine Lake
Running Eagle Trail
Evening
Overnight at Red Eagle Campground (outside of the park)
Day 2
Morning
Hikers’ shuttle boat from Many Glacier Hotel
Hike: Grinnell Glacier Hike (8.0 miles, 1,900 feet, 6 hours)
Afternoon
Explore Many Glacier Hotel
Evening
Overnight at KOA West Glacier (outside of the park)
Day 3
Morning
Going to the Sun Road (entry ticket reservation required)
Hike: St. Mary & Virginia Falls (5.3 miles, 600 feet, 4 hours)
Afternoon
Arrive at St. Mary Visitor Center
Logan Pass Visitor Center
Highline Trail (partial) (1.3 miles, 400 feet, 1 hour)
Evening
Overnight at KOA West Glacier
Day 4
Morning
Hike: Avalanche Creek (6.4 miles, 800 feet, 4 hours)
Afternoon
McDonald Creek
Apgar Village
Evening
Overnight at KOA West Glacier
Day 5
Morning
Apgar Visitor Center
Shuttle to Logan Pass
Logan Pass Visitor Center
Afternoon
Hike: Hidden Lake Overlook (2.8 miles, 500 feet, 2 hours)
Evening
Overnight at KOA West Glacier
Day 6
Depart for Chelan, WA
Overnight at Chelan Lakeshore RV Park
Notes
Our arrival at Glacier was more or less on time, per our plan, but all along we had a lingering feeling that we may need to call an audible on night number one. The original plan for the 2020 trip (which was postponed because of the pandemic) called for a quick hike at Two Medicine and overnight at Saint Mary Campground, on the east side of the park. This became impossible in 2021, as Saint Mary didn’t even open to visitors and snagging a campsite at Many Glacier proved to be impossible. In fact, we only managed to book one night at a campground inside the park, and that was the for night number one.
The catch was that we booked night one at Fish Creek on the west side of Glacier. The rest of our time was booked at the KOA West Glacier, just outside the park. Luckily, as we approached Two Medicine, we saw a sign for a campground called Red Eagle. As we soon learned, this location was owned and operated by the Blackfeet Tribe, and — to our delight — there was plenty of open space. So, we chose to stay on the east side for night one, saving us an hour drive that evening and almost an hour and a half drive in the morning to Many Glacier.
Despite our closer proximity, we nearly missed our boat reservation at Many Glacier. Even though we were aware of the road construction going into Many Glacier, the drive and the construction delays simply took longer that we planned. However, we luckily ran up to the boar operator’s booth just before they started filling our seats with walk-ons. The rest of the day went more or less as planned as we climbed to Grinnell Glacier.
On day three, we slept a bit later than planned. We found that the sunsets after 9pm in Montana kept us up later than we may have otherwise. We forewent shuttle reservations at Saint Mary — mostly because we couldn’t make it across Going-to-the-Sun Road to Saint Mary Visitor Center before 10am. Instead we made some stops along the way and ultimately found parking at Saint Mary & Virginia Falls trailhead. We did eventually make it to Saint Mary Visitor Center just before closing. We also made an impromptu stop at Logan Pass Visitor Center because there were open parking spaces at the time. (
There had been no open spaces on our west-to-east drive past that morning, and rangers had been preventing cars from even entering the lot.) This late afternoon stop led to a short hike out and back on the High Line Trail, where we had a close encounter with a family of mountain goats.
Based on the crowded lot we’d seen at Logan Pass, we ended up flip-flopping days four and five. We pushed our Hidden Lake Overview hike (the trail begins at Logan Pass) to day five, when we also had shuttle reservations from Apgar. So, day four ended up being the Avalanche Lake hike, followed by a spontaneous decision to relax in McDonald Creek for most of the afternoon — a spontaneous decision that very much paid off. Day five saw our return to Logan Pass, via shuttles, and a hike to Hidden Lake Overview.
Nothing at Glacier wen’t precisely as planned — and that even includes the planning process itself. But, we saw and did more than we had hoped to.
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