Glacier National Park

Spoiler: The Going-to-the-Sun Road is one of the most stunning roads in America.


Story: We got to the entrance of Glacier National Park a little later than expected and joined the line-up of cars waiting to get in. Sadly, the Park Service has a no-win mandate: serve millions of visitors without making an impact to the landscape, on a pittance of a budget. Well, cynicism aside, it was our lucky day. We were waved right through the entrance--because the line was so long, the gate-keepers had to wave people through to get it slimmed down. While I was feeling quite lucky that we were let in free, it does make me a little sad that our car, as well as probably hundreds of others, got in without having to pay their dues, dues the Park Service is highly reliant upon for their operations. Okay, there’s some more negativity, which I will now abandon because we had a truly spectacular day.


We drove up to the Logan Pass visitor center via the Going-to-the-Sun Road upon entering. This drive is a bit harrowing, but takes you along the Flathead River where a hair-pin turn sends you several thousand feet upward around more crazy turns with amazing vistas in all directions! We had a lot of photo stops and I couldn’t help but notice the temperature plunging with each turn. By the time we got up to Logan Pass (at the Continental Divide and over 6,000’) it was a chilly 48 degrees F, with the wind blowing steadily and freezing the bejeezus out of my bare legs…as the doofus of the day, I had failed to bring pants. I donned all my jackets, fleecy things, a hat, and socks and shoes (blasphemy in summer!), and we headed up the Hidden Lake trail…along with hundreds of our best friends. We had planned to do the more off-the-beaten-track Garden Wall hike, but the noon-hour and the frigid weather made us reconsider the 11 miles or so. We got great views and saw lots of wildlife anyway, all without going hypothermic.



Of course there needs to be some mention of the charismatic megafauna, with some old goats making a grand appearance (and a baby goat too). And we saw some ground squirrels, marmots, and other little beasties of undetermined provenance. Fun! Even more impressive though, is the geology in the park. Basically my knowledge of geology stops at the major rock types: sedimentary, igneous, and…what’s that other one? But, I sure would have loved to have known a bit about what I was seeing—I guess there’s always the internet.


We headed down from Logan Pass and out the east side of the park, passing some grand attractions like the World’s Largest Wooden Spoon Shop and enjoyed some huckleberry pie at one roadside stop claiming they had the best (rarely do these claims pan out, but this was some respectable pie, even if not truly superlative!).



We made one last stop for dinner at the Isaak Walton Hotel before heading home for some more relaxation at the cabin, where the heartier of us capped off the night with a dark-sky dip in the lake and some adult beverages and we all watched a little bit of the Perseid meteor shower filling the clear Montana sky!