Glacier National Park. Admittedly, when anyone puts me on the spot with the question, “But what’s your FAVORITE National Park?!?” Glacier is always my answer. It’s the “Crown of the Continent” afterall, and has most certainly earned this title. And there are so many reasons why. With the sharp edges of the Continental Divide splitting the park into west and east sides, the dramatic “Going to the Sun Road” slices through the middle, and visitors will experience the beauty and grandeur of some of the oldest rocks in North America while taking in the beauty of the flora and fauna. 700 miles of trails wind through this park, providing every visitor the chance to chart their own path.
Our family visited Glacier during our Summer of 2019 RV Road Trip, driving up to Montana from Northern Idaho. Having never been, and after lusting over photos of it for years, we planned to spend a good chunk of time in the park (4 nights) to get the best experience. Glacier, in turn, did not disappoint
We arrived late in the evening after our drive from Idaho, stopping for some groceries and a few new door hinges on the way (I bent the hinges on our bathroom door when I closed the slide outs of the RV without first shutting the bathroom door, pinching the hinges backward, but that’s an entirely other story…lol). Our first stop as we neared the boundary of the park was to pick up a rental car in West Glacier Village, which we had arranged for two days. The most quintessentially beautiful drive through Glacier National Park, the “Going to the Sun Road,” is limited to vehicles 21 feet and shorter, so we knew ahead of time that our RV, “Thor,” could not make the journey and had arranged a rental car ahead of time.
Day 1 was a bit rainy in the morning. It is important to note that the temperature and weather swings in Glacier National Park are frequent (year-round), and that you need to be prepared for the full spectrum of weather every day (think ski jackets and wool hats, even in the Summer). We started our day at the St. Mary Visitor Center, just a mile from our campground, the St. Mary / East Glacier KOA at St. Mary’s Lake – This campground was wonderful, and had the most gorgeous views of Glacier’s Valley, not to mention the most delicious mint ice cream (aptly named “Mint Moose Moss”) and pizza that you could arrange to be delivered to your RV from the campground General Store. After checking out the Visitor Center and viewing a video about the park, we headed out for a drive on Going to the Sun Road, a 50 mile stretch of highway that proved to be one of the most gorgeous drives our family had ever attempted.
On the Going to the Sun Road, each visitor has the option of driving the road North to South, or vice versa. We opted to start at St. Mary’s, driving South and eventually ending at Lake McDonald. There are several remarkable viewpoints along the way, and we highly recommend stopping at each.
Along our journey, we stopped frequently, as each vista was surprisingly and seemingly more gorgeous than the previous. We spent some time along MacDonald River. and then finished our drive at Lake MacDonald, where we visited the historic Lake McDonald Lodge, and had a blast skipping rocks on the lake. Each of the kids submerged their feet in the river at least once, entirely soaking their hiking shoes, which Justin would spend the next morning drying with a blow dryer.
On our drive back from Lake McDonald to St. Mary’s, we stopped at a few more scenic overlooks, our favorite of which was where we spotted a herd of mountain goats, including several babies. The kids loved it, and spent the better part of the afternoon teasing Justin about them with what has now become a running family joke. When he first saw them, he was so excited and yelled to kids, “Check it out guys!” A quizzical look quickly emerged on his face, and he wondered out loud, “What are those? Llamas?!” The kids got a good kick out of his naivety, and henceforth the lore of the Glacier “mountain llamas” was woven into our family story.
Day Two in Glacier began again in our rental car, departing on the Going to the Sun Road and heading toward Logan Pass, where we picked up the trailhead to a hike to Hidden Lake. The hike was gorgeous, and had a good elevation gain, and Quinn needed a little assistance along the way. We saw several more mountain goats, as well as a few small waterfalls on the sides of the glacial cliffs that surrounded us. The beauty in Glacier really is other-worldly
It was cold on our hike, and by the time we were a few minutes from the summit, we could tell that the massive storm cloud that had been looming on the horizon was close on our heels. Just as we reached the summit, it started SNOWING on us. We quickly checked out the view of Hidden Lake, snapped a few pics, and then made our way down as fast as our little legs could carry us. The kids got a kick out of the fact that it was snowing
On our way down, we saw a marmot (they were WAY bigger than we thought!), and it was sunny by the end of our hike.
After thawing out from our hike to Hidden Falls, we made a stop at St. Mary’s Falls, and were accompanied by Grace and Hayden on our hike. It was sunny and warm by this point, and we really enjoyed the views of the falls and chatting with them along the way.
On our third and final full day in Glacier, our family traveled out to an area of the park called “Many Glacier.” None of us really knew what to expect, but we somehow secured the LAST parking spot in the parking lot of the Many Glacier Hotel, the only spot to park when exploring this area of the National Park. It turned out to be the very best “Parking Karma”, as we had one of our most memorable days of our trip
After checking out the historic Many Glacier Hotel, and determining that Grinnell Glacier, the most famous glacier of this area was the thing to see, we knew our kids could never make the hike to the glacier itself, with an over 1500 foot elevation gain. We decided that we COULD make the hike to Grinnell Lake, which had been highly recommended, but the over 8 mile hike would be challenging for the kids, especially Quinn. Knowing that the trail was flat, we decided to give it a go anyway, knowing that we could tag-team piggy back rides for Quinn as necessary.
This hike proved to be one of our family-favorite hikes of all-time. We wound halfway around Swiftcurrent Lake, really one of the most picturesque lakes we had ever seen, and then along the South Shore of Lake Josephine, where we stopped for a while to skip some rocks, one of our kids favorite pastimes.
The hike was gorgeous as we wound from Lake Josephine through the forest to Grinnell Lake.
Arriving at Grinnell Lake, we had the most beautiful views of Grinnell Lake, with the Glacier in full view in the background. We rested in the sun, ate a picnic lunch, and the kids even fashioned makeshift “boats” out of tree bark. It was absolute heaven.
After resting for quite some time at Grinnell Lake, we assessed that, after hiking almost 5 1/2 miles already, taking a scenic boat trip part of the way back to shorten the return trip would allow us to bypass Lake Josephine and Swiftcurrent Lake. The kids were starting to have tired feet, so we hightailed it to the boat dock, about a mile’s hike from where we had just been, to see about getting a ride back. The only problem was, there were about 40 other people at the dock trying to do the same thing when we got there!
After waiting about a half hour, we decided to make the 2 1/2 mile trek back to the trailhead instead of waiting for another boat. Justin turned on some music on his speaker, and we hit the trail, expecting Quinn to really fall flat at this point of the day. But he never did. He and I hiked the trail together, and I was able to distract him with a million questions along the way to keep his mind off things. We heard some thunder along the way, and it even drizzled slightly for a few minutes, but it was a lovely walk and the kids were in the best spirits. I didn’t say a word about it to Justin, worried I would jinx it
Our family arrived back at the Many Glacier Hotel, reveling in the fact that our kids had just hiked 8.1 miles. Quinn, who never received even a short piggy back ride on the journey, was so, so proud.
On our way home, we saw a grizzly bear, and we returned to our campground that evening in time for dinner, a movie, and some of the best ice cream we’ve had on our trip so far, “Montana Moose Moss,” aptly named!
Glacier National Park was an absolutely spectacular destination on our trip, and we know that we will be back again one day to explore this amazing park in more depth!
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