Glacier National Park, MT

Day #22 (August 22, 2022): We spent the day driving from Billings, MT, to West Glacier, MT. During our car ride west, we experienced first-hand the flat plains of Montana’s “Big Sky Country” as we drove through miles and miles of flat prairies and wheat fields. Did you know that even though Montana’s name is derived from the Spanish word for mountain, it is actually 3/5 Great Plains and only 2/5 Rocky Mountain region? Well, we do now! LOL! Boy, did we see a lot of prairies and wheat fields—with no mountains in sight—as we drove across the fourth largest state! We were thankful to finally see the mountains after a long two days of driving! We parked our rig at West Glacier RV Park, which was conveniently located just outside the west entrance to Glacier National Park. Afterwards, we drove into the park to eat at Eddie’s Café near Lake McDonald and then to walk along the shore of Lake McDonald.

Day #23 (August 23, 2022): After school work and virtual music lessons, the kids enjoyed riding their bikes on the paved roads and RV pads within the campground. They haven’t had many opportunities to ride their bikes up to this point, so they were happy to be able to ride! Because we didn’t have a pass to get into Glacier National Park, we had to wait until after 4 pm to enter the park. We entered the park right at 4:00 pm and went to the Visitor Center to get our national park stamps in our national park books and to gather some maps and trail information. One of the main attractions at Glacier is their Going-to-the-Sun Road. Naively, we decided to go ahead and take this opportunity to get that drive checked off our list and to see what there was to see in the park while the crowds were low. (Traffic and parking can be an issue on this very popular drive.) Well, let’s just say what we thought was going to be a pleasant joy ride through the mountains taking in all its beauty quickly became a white-knuckle, stomach-churning, don’t look out the window, keep your eyes on the road, “When does this road end?”, “When will we be back home?” 4.5-hour drive! We started off nice and easy, driving along the shore of Lake McDonald with clear skies. This was nothing compared to Needles Highway in Custer! Uh, we spoke too soon. As we continued to drive east, we went higher in elevation, climbing the mountains. And then, the weather abruptly changed. Next thing we know, it is pouring down rain, then pouring down hail. Of course, there aren’t many places to pull over to wait for the storm to pass on this narrow road. The ever-increasing drop into the valley down, down below and the non-existent shoulder on the road if something were to go wrong along with the storms and hail, let’s just say, not a good combo. It actually hailed on us in THREE different spots on our ride east! The mountains were covered in clouds, so no views or pictures of them either. It took a record 1 hour 40 minutes to drive from the west entrance to the east entrance because we didn’t stop anywhere as designed or intended. Needless to say, there was no way we were going to drive back on that road especially given the current weather conditions. So, down and around the south perimeter of the park we drove (2.5 hours) back to our campground arriving back to our campground after 9 pm. Thankfully, no storms on our return drive home because we weren’t up in the clouds anymore. Wow! What a drive!

Day #24 (August 24, 2022): After the previous evening’s events, we weren’t ready to venture too deep into the park anytime soon. LOL! Instead, we stayed close to Lake McDonald, also known as Fruity Pebble Lake. The kids loved playing with its small, colorful rocks along its shores, lining up the different colored rocks they found in rainbow order and seeing who could make the prettiest rainbow. After a picnic lunch at Fish Creek picnic area, we hiked the Rocky Point trail along Lake McDonald’s shore, which took us to a place where the shore was covered in flat, gray skipping rocks, not round smooth colorful pebbles. It was a very neat and interesting contrast. We enjoyed skipping rocks, competing to see who could get the most skips. None of us are very good yet. We need more practice. After our hike, we went to Eddie’s for ice cream cones. Their dairy-free chocolate ice cream is delicious!

Day #25 (August 25, 2022): After schoolwork, the kids wanted to ride their bikes some more around the RV park. They were enjoying the slower pace in West Glacier after such a busy week in South Dakota. They really wanted to ride their bikes inside Glacier, so we loaded their bikes up and found a bike trail near the Visitor Center, which is just inside the west entrance. We enjoyed riding our bikes through the deep green forests on the paved bike path. That night, we enjoyed sampling different huckleberry treats and other Montana treats that we found at the small grocery store up the road from our campground: huckleberry pie (so, so good!), huckleberry taffy (yum!), huckleberry cream soda (pretty good), huckleberry pie ice cream by Red Button (delicious…our favorite fruity flavored ice cream), Salted Nut Roll (so good…it’s like a combo of Big Hunk and PayDay candy bars), and Fruity Pebbles (the kids’ first time trying this colorful cereal in honor of Fruity Pebble Lake/Lake McDonald).

Day #26 (August 26, 2022): After schoolwork, we went on a 3-hour (half-day) white water rafting trip with Glacier Raft Company. The rapids were low because of the time of year, so our main challenge was dodging the now-exposed large rocks in the riverbed. Our guide, Kirby, did a fantastic job coaching us down the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. It was so much fun! We all stayed in our raft with no scary incidents thankfully. It was a great introductory white water rafting trip for us girls who had never white water rafted before. That night, we made our first campfire of the trip. It was nice to sit around and enjoy the fire on a cool night.

Day #27 (August 27, 2022): Chris needed to catch up on some work, so Emily and the kids rode their bikes into Glacier since our 3-day car pass was now expired. Thankfully, we had figured out the bike route two days ago when we were riding our bikes on the bike trail near the Visitor Center. We hiked Oxbow Trail and enjoyed the company of a couple from Arizona who were seasoned campers and travelers and gleaned from their experiences and took notes of their recommendations. Being in bear country, we were thankful to have the extra company on the trail. We saw a beaver lodge at the oxbow bend of McDonald Creek on our trail, which was cool. Since this was our last day at Glacier, we decided to give the Going-to-the-Sun Road one more try, hoping to have a better experience. Emily really wanted to see Logan’s Pass at the top of the Continental Divide, which was about the halfway point of the road. We boarded a free shuttle bus at the Visitor Center at 1:45 pm. We were getting an earlier start on the drive than our first attempt. The ride up to Logan’s Pass was smooth and more enjoyable. It was easier to take in the beautiful scenery of the green valleys and rocky mountain peaks. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Logan’s Pass, the weather had changed. The temperature was much cooler, storms were quickly moving in, and we were unprepared. Some of the kids were wearing shorts! We went inside the visitor center at the top of Logan’s Pass for about 5 minutes and then went to huddle and wait in the covered shuttle bus stop for the next shuttle. No more trails for us today! We arrived back at 5:15 pm to the main Visitor Center where we had parked our bikes. Thankfully, Chris came and picked us and our bikes up, so we didn’t have to bike home in the rain. We were thankful to be back home, where it was warm and dry.