We arrived in West Glacier August 30th as planned and settled at our campsite in West Glacier RV Park, about 1 mile from the west entrance to Glacier National Park. Just being here and seeing the beauty around us was enough; everything else exceeded my expectations.

Glacier is a special place for me, having vague memories of visiting here with my parents well over 50 years ago. The beauty, history, and endless vistas is quite an experience and I can tell you a week here was great, but left me wanting more.

Glacier deserves a post all it’s own, so here we go:

Glacier became a NP in 1910, the 10th park in the NP system. It encompasses over 1 million acres, 700 miles of hiking trails, over 700 lakes, 200 waterfalls, and straddles the continental divide at Logan Pass; and then there’s the glaciers! Once over 100 active glaciers in the park (defined as at least 25 acre ice mass) ; today there are 26 remaining, and they have significantly decreased in size.

Going To The Sun Road (GTTSR): Labeled a “monumental engineering accomplishment”; the 50+ mile road is the only roadway that connects the east and west sides of the park. The road was started in the 1920’s and dedicated in 1933 with many improvements since. It opens in late June or early July and closes in October, depending on weather.

A very narrow road with a steady climb in the alpine section, but built with only one switchback. Staying in West Glacier we traveled the west portion of the road past Lake McDonald to Logan Pass several times (32 miles).

One day we drove around the south boundary of the park on Highway 2 and 89 to East Glacier (about 80 miles) and drove GTTSR back to West Glacier. Due to traffic and reduced speed it takes between 2-3 hours to drive the 50+ miles (without stops).

Many Glacier & Two Medicine Entrances: The east side of the park butts up to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Some of the Indian names have endured. The Many Glacier entrance is a 12 mile road with hiking trailheads and dead ends at the Many Glacier Hotel on Swiftcurrent Lake.

The Two Medicine entrance is a 9 mile road into the park, again with trailheads, including Running Eagle Falls Trail; and ends at Two Medicine Lake that includes a campground and small store.

Hiking the High Line Trail: We arranged a guided hike with Glacier Guides during our visit. We drove from West Glacier Village to Logan Pass and hiked 7.2 miles on the popular High Line Trail. Rated as a “challenging hike” it was just that, but very much worth it. The views were spectacular and gave us a whole different perspective of the park as opposed to overlooks from the road.

One section of the trail is the “rim rock”, where the mountain wall is on one side and a steep drop off on the other side. The path was fairly wide in most spots and there was a cable on the mountain side to steady yourself if needed.

Another section of the trail was along the Garden Wall; an area of lush green plants and trees. We ate a sack lunch at the highest point of our hike on Haystack Butte.

We felt safer going with a small group with guides and enjoyed hearing some of the history and facts about the park. For example, we were told there are approximately 1,000 bears within the park (50% grizzlies/50% black bear), along with mountain sheep, big horn sheep, moose, wolves, and other wildlife. We only saw mountain sheep, which was okay with us.

There are daily updates on trail closures due to “bear activity”. This time of the year they are more active since they are preparing for winter hibernation.

Lake McDonald and St. Mary Lake: Both lakes are approximately 10 miles long; Lake McDonald is located along GTTSR as you enter from West Glacier and St. Mary Lake is along the East Glacier entrance. There are boat cruises and kayaking opportunities on the lakes as well as several other lakes.

We took a boat cruise that started on Swiftcurrent Lake and continued on Lake Josephine after a 1/4 mile hike between lakes. We got a look at one of the remaining glaciers (Salamander Glacier) from Lake Josephine.

Glaciers and Mountain Lakes: In addition to Salamander Glacier, there is a viewpoint for Jackson Glacier from the east side of GTTSR. Most of the other glaciers and many lakes are only visible when hiking (and most of the hikes are rated moderate to very challenging). One of the most popular hikes is to Grinnel Lake and Grinnel Glacier which is about a 10 mile hike.

Other notes: We did the vintage Red Bus Tour on GTTSR. It was great source of information as the driver narrated the drive. There are not many stores or restaurant choices in West or East Glacier and some begin closing down around Labor Day. Columbia Falls, about 15 miles west, offers more choices.

The best gift/souvenir shopping was at Apgar Village on Lake McDonald (West Entrance). Several nice gift shops, a small restaurant and several ice cream options there, along with kayak rentals and swimming area.

I had to pick and choose for this summary, so much more I could talk about. My passion for the National Parks was only reinforced by this visit. For more information, including a ticketing system implemented for the busy summer season can be found on the web site: https://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm.

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