Road Trip Day 4: Glacier National Park!

Ahhh, Glacier National Park, what a glorious, beautiful place!  Jeff and I have been to Glacier on one other occasion when we drove to Montana after his High School graduation, but to be honest, I don't remember it all.  Not sure whether we didn't stay that long or whether it was because we were just kids that it didn't make that much of an impression on me but that wasn't the case with this trip.  

Our campground was in West Glacier, just a few miles from the West Entrance of the park.  We packed a lunch and started the day out early.  The sun was up at 4:30am....and didn't go down until after 10:30pm....so I was up and ready to go pretty early.  The kids did not see the need to rush out too quickly but they were soon up and ready to start our day around 8:30.  There is only one road that takes you through the park, The Going-to-the-Sun Road.  As we entered the park we informed the kids that no electronic devices were to be used while in the park.  That elicited a few groans, but well worth it.  It allowed us all to be connected with each other and the beauty that surrounded us.  

Our first stop on this first day was a hike just past Lake McDonald at the trail head for Johns Lake.  We weren't sure about stopping so soon into our day as we knew there was lots to see, but the lake was a short half mile hike and so we decided to give it a try.  We walked through a cool forest of Lodge Pole Pines and giant rocks.  Had we not been paying attention, we would have missed the lake altogether.  It was more like a pond.  We kept walking thinking there must be more, there wasn't, that was the whole lake but we were pleasantly surprised when eventually we made the loop and came across McDonald Falls!  Our first falls of the trip! I love waterfalls. 

The kids, especially Ryan, loved skipping the flat rocks into the creek.  We were impressed by our first set of whitewater and the color of the rushing waters. 

We crossed the river and continued along the path, the view became more impressive. We found that what we had seen before were not the falls since a more impressive sight was before us. 

Justin was terrified in that upper middle picture. He would not go toward the edge and was unaware that there was a ledge for Jeff to stand on. He was on the verge of tears pleading for Jeff to come back up.

Once we loaded up in the car, we continued our journey up The Going-to-the-Sun Road!  I was not prepared for the sights we would see along the way.....It was so amazingly beautiful!!  As we made our way towards Logan Pass we passed the Weeping Wall and made a stop at another waterfall that disappeared into a bank of snow.  This was a short hike in distance but it was a very steep climb.  We learned that Justin has a fear of heights!  He wanted to go further but was struggling and fearful.  He spent a lot of time on his butt and with his hands holding onto the mountain side.  This will not be the last time this trip that he has to face this fear.  Travis and Ryan easily kept climbing until we finally encouraged them to make the journey downward.

Weeping Wall

We continued to Logan Pass, where it was very crowded. It took us quite awhile to find parking.  We did get out at the visitor center to use the bathroom and put our feet in the snow that remained.

Logan Pass

Jackson Glacier overlook

We are back in the "valley" now and heading out towards the East Entrance at St. Mary.  We made a stop at Saint Mary Lake to take in the sights.

St. Mary's Lake

We exited the park at St. Mary and headed up to the Many Glacier Area.  At this point, we were just 30 miles for the Canadian border. Many Glacier was really nice, lots of trails and hikes to explore.  We decided to take the hike to Redrock Falls, which was about a 4 mile hike.  We spoke to a family who had just completed the hike and they had seen a couple of moose!  We were excited about the prospect of seeing wildlife since we hadn't seen much yet. Redrock Falls was gorgeous! We spent quite a bit of time climbing up and around the falls and taking in the views.  Unfortunately, we didn't see any moose or bears as other hikers had seen.

Redrock Falls

It was about 5pm when we made it back to our car.  Now we had to decide how we were getting back to camp which was all the way on the other side of the park, a couple hours away.  We decided to go back the way we came and travel across The Going-to-the-Sun Road again.  It was just as spectacular the second time with a whole new set of views as we viewed it from a new vantage point.  

It was a long, exhausting but wonderful day!