Travel from East to West Glacier
This is the third post in our Glacier National Park series - click here to view the first one, where we discuss planning our trip, and here for the second one detailing our stay on the east side, near St. Mary.
After a wonderful stay in St. Mary, we hooked up the RV and headed to our next destination by going north on 89 and then east on 464 (the shortest route would be on the Going to the Sun Road - however vehicles over 21 feet are not allowed, and if you've ever driven on that road, you know why). We had taken 89 on our way in, and some of the turns and corners were a bit unnerving with our trailer. The 464 route takes you away from Glacier, through some of the most beautiful rolling hills, all part of the Blackfoot Reservation. We ended up in Browning, where there was a nice IGA - time to restock the fridge.
Heading back west towards West Glacier, we enjoyed the beautiful landscape along route 2, which hugs the south boundary of the park. After about 2 hours we arrived at our base for the next few days, Glacier Campground. This is a fairly large park but with tons of trees, so it doesn't feel like there are 75 sites.
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| Site F4 at Glacier Campground |
Day 1: Hiking the Highline Trail
The Highline Trail was our target this first morning on the west side. The trailhead is at Logan Pass, about an hour from our campsite. We were up at 5:30, left shortly after 6, driving the Going to the Sun Road pre-dawn. It was only when we rounded "The Loop" that we started to see some of the incredible landscape. We arrived at the Logan Pass parking lot about 7:10 - thankfully there were still about 20 parking spots left.
This was the haziest day we had in Glacier due to the western/Canadian forest fires. While the views once again were stunning, we could not see very far down the valley - somewhat disappointing. Wildlife sightings included deer, marmots and a big horn sheep right on the trail. He just moseyed along and took his time - as if to say "this is my mountain". All the hikers respected his space, and eventually we had navigate an avalanche slide of loose rock to hike around him.
Here is a short video of our hike.
Just as we found with the Many Glacier boat ride, the Glacier Park Boat Company crew was once again professional and passionate about sharing information about Glacier; both the history and the geology. Here is a sampling of what we learned:
After finishing our coffee and securing our packs for the trek, we set out, excited to take on this famous trail. One of the very first features at roughly one-quarter of a mile from the trailhead is the famous ledge with the reputation for terrifying those with a fear of heights (I don't have a fear of heights - I have a fear of falling). In most places the ledge, hanging like a shelf below the Garden Wall, is only six to eight feet in width, and has drop-offs of roughly one hundred feet or more down to the Going-to-the-Sun Road below. This segment lasts for only three-tenths of a mile, but it did seem forever. Fortunately there was a hand cable along this stretch of the trail.
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| Early section on the Highline Trail |
This was the haziest day we had in Glacier due to the western/Canadian forest fires. While the views once again were stunning, we could not see very far down the valley - somewhat disappointing. Wildlife sightings included deer, marmots and a big horn sheep right on the trail. He just moseyed along and took his time - as if to say "this is my mountain". All the hikers respected his space, and eventually we had navigate an avalanche slide of loose rock to hike around him.
If you hike this from Logan Pass to the Granite Park Chalet is a 14.9 mile heavily trafficked out and back trail and is rated as difficult. We did our turn at the "saddle", where Haystack Butte meets Mount Gould, so we ended up at 8.1 well-earned miles
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| Our Highline Trail stats from AllTrails |
Boat Ride on Lake McDonald, John's Lake Loop
For our second day on the west side of the park, our plan was to take short boat ride on Lake McDonald and then hike John's Lake Loop. Another hazy day, this time due to weather more than than smoke. After a safety briefing, we boarded the DeSmet and were on our way for this one hour cruise.
- The DeSMET is 93 year old historic boat, built in 6 weeks by Billy Swanson (all boats in their fleet were built by him). Glacier Park Boat Company is rare in that it is a family run business in a National Park. The water was pretty rough, but we didn’t feel it at all on the boat.
- There are still some private residences within the park. Kelly's Camp is one of them, built by Frank Kelly, who worked for the Great Northern Railroad.
- We also heard about some of the Indigenous people that thrived in the area, including the Blackfeet on the prairies on the east side of Glacier, while the Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Kootenai lived in the more forested west side. Physical evidence of human use dates back more than 10,000 years within the boundaries of Glacier National Park.
- McDonald Lake was formed by a glacier over 20,000 years ago. It is 10 miles long, 1 mile wide, and at its deepest is 475 feet. It does not freeze over, partly due to the more temperate west coast Pacific winds.
- Fires are actually good for diversity. When fires move as they should, they create new growth, and result in a mosaic of colors with old and new growth.
- You will see a lot of red and green rock all over Glacier - the rock is grinnell argillite and is over 1.5 billion years old - pushed up from ancient sea bed. The red color is from the iron within the rock oxidizing, while the green rock contains iron that did not oxidize. There is a famous Instagram posting of these rocks on the shore of Lake McDonald...this image is highly edited/colorized - they are simply not that color. Love the pic though.
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| "Colored" rocks on the shore of Lake McDonald |
After a relaxing and informative ride, we made our way to Johns Lake Loop, a 1.9 mile loop trail also used by horses for trail rides. We could really see the much denser forest of the west side of the park compared to the east side.
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| Our Johns Lake Loop stats from AllTrails |
We headed back out of the park taking a detour to Apgar Village, where there is a motel, a small group of shops and places to grab a bit to eat, including the infamous Eddies. We shared a wonderful Asian wrap and I had my first Huckleberry Margarita.
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| Lunch at Eddie's counter |
Since we had a shorter day, we ventured into Columbia Falls and visited Backslope Brewing - click to see our review.
Avalanche Lake Trail via Avenue of the Cedars
This was another early morning - just not quite as brutal. This time we left our campsite at about 7, arriving at the parking lot about 730. We got one of the last spots, enjoyed our coffee and set out on the trail. The first section is along a boardwalk, part of the National Park Service efforts for improving accessibility across the service. After leaving the boardwalk, you enter the denser portion of the trail along McDonald Creek, in an area designated as a rainforest. There are several steeper climbs and then you come upon Avalanche Lake, and with the low hanging clouds the scene was surreal.
As we started our return to the trailhead, we could see some breaks in the clouds - and we were optimistic about our plan to return to Logan Pass for some sight seeing.
Our Avalanche Trail stats from AllTrails
Going to the Sun - Logan Pass
On our last afternoon in the park we were hoping the haze and clouds would clear for some sightseeing. As mentioned above, as we exited the Avalanche Trail, we were hopeful for clearer skies. At least I was. We returned to the Going to the Sun Road, and just as we were approaching Logan Pass the clouds were moving so quickly, and eventually dissipated. We made stops at Bird Woman Falls, Oberlin Bend, the East Tunnel Overlook, just past Siyeh Bend and Jackson Glacier. Phenomenal.
Our Takeaways:
- Logan Pass parking is the most sought after parking in Glacier. Plan on arriving as close to 7am as possible.
- The recent history of summer wildfires in the western US and Canada impacts not only the visibility in Glacier - it could potentially close certain areas or even the entire park. The Haycreek fire in the summer of 2021 was dangerously close to the west entrance. If you plan travel in late summer/early fall watch closely for changing conditions and alerts.
- Our next visit to Glacier will definitely be in the summer to see the wildflowers in bloom, as soon as the Going to the Sun Road opens (in 2021, the road opened June 25 and closed early on Oct. 13 due to snow).
- Take the time to explore all of the Going to the Sun Road! The views are stunning - hard to believe your eyes sometimes.
- While there are some stores with supplies in West Glacier, the closest decent sized grocery store is in Hungry Horse, about 10 miles from the west entrance.
Next up, we travel to Wallace, Idaho - a new state for both of us and for Minnie!
Have you been to the west side of Glacier National Park? Did you hike the Highline Trail? Leave your comments below! Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.
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