The Crown Jewel of the Continent
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| Avalanche Lake, from the NPS Media page |
Since we were first empty-nesters, and the baseball travel slowed to one team-only trip a year, we started thinking about our travel wish list. That's where everything on this blog has started - from a Google sheet. I think it was while we were actually in Yellowstone in 2020, we added Glacier National Park. Since we live on a lake in central Minnesota, we hope to enjoy our home and having friends and family for visits most of the summer, with some shorter trips within the state (see our Voyageurs and Isle Royale posts). As for winter, our plan is to be out of the state and avoid the cold as much as possible after the first of the year. But we know to enjoy northern part our continent, we need to travel in the summer, and 2021 is the year for Glacier.
I've shared before that my overall planning strategy is to go RV Parky and enter the primary destination(s). I then mix in a bit of Pinterest research, and based on that and input from our Vintage Cruisers Facebook group, we ended up with two stops for Glacier including St. Mary on the East and West Glacier on the - you guessed it - west side. I then work out how many days travel to get there with ideally 4-5 hour travel days when we're towing the RV. We feel it's ok to go longer the first few days, since we're all hooked up and the excitement and adrenaline of hitting the road keeps us going.
Once I saw the plan take shape, I added a short trip to Idaho, and selected Wallace as the waypoint. This will be my 49th state (I'm also missing New Hampshire) but now that I'm getting down there I'm not sure if/when I've been to Arkansas. We'll work that in some time soon, plus we need to add an Arkansas sticker to our travel map on Minnie anyway.
When looking for a waypoint between Idaho and Wyoming, I found Basin MT, home to the Merry Widow Health Mine - that sounds just weird enough to warrant a stop.
We also added Devil's Tower in northeast Wyoming. We drove past the exit sign during our return from Yellowstone/Tetons and since we were still working at the time we had to soldier on home. Tim definitely pouted for a few miles after that.
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| Our route for our Glacier adventure |
As the departure date approaches for these destination type trips, we started getting more serious about planning the itinerary, specifically for any excursions and to map out hiking trails. In Glacier there are so many options for day hikes, to help plan we purchased Day Hikes of Glacier National Park off Amazon to help visualize the routes. With our AllTrails Pro subscription we could plan out an itinerary day by day, making the most of our time. Our goal is to fully leverage the Navigation feature of AllTrails Pro to always know where we are even without cell service. All you have to do is download the map prior, then the app uses the phones GPS to track where you are. We even tested it here locally on a bike trail.
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| Grinnell Glacier Trail, desktop view |
I booked two boat excursions through the Glacier Park Boat Company. The first while we are on the east side, to Many Glacier. This is actually two boat rides and a hike, as the website describes it:
Enjoy both lakes via a small hike linking the two boats in this two-part tour. The tour begins on the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake, below the expansive Many Glacier Hotel. Take the Chief Two Guns across Swiftcurrent Lake, dock, disembark and walk 0.2 mile (over a steep hill) to the shores of Lake Josephine and board the Morning Eagle. Cruise to the head of Lake Josephine where you can either disembark and go on a guided or self-guided hike, or remain on the boat to return back across both lakes to the Many Glacier Hotel.
The second is a shorter ride during our stay on the west side, on Lake McDonald:
The majesty of the Continental Divide and the tranquility of the emerald-hued lake are a must-see as you cruise along Lake McDonald, the largest lake in the park . Climb aboard the historic vessel, DeSmet, the flagship vessel in our wooden boat fleet from the shore below the Lake McDonald Lodge.
I then look at interesting sights and of course breweries we enjoy along the way. As of two weeks before departure, I had 46 places on the Roadtrippers plan for Glacier - many of them trails or sights along a trail. Usually while I'm traveling I will update and either remove places we didn't go, add places we did see that were not planned, or submit tickets to Roadtrippers to correct and/or add places.
Lastly, we start reviewing any maintenance the trailer needs, restocking supplies, planning meals and filling the freezer with meats/meals to take with us. We just received our new Quick Set Clam screened in tent - we might need it in Glacier! Minnie will also get a good cleaning, both inside and out, and the countdown begins!
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| It really was easy to set up and take down! |
Have you been to Glacier National Park? What did you use to plan your trip? Do you have a travel wish list? Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.
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