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Glacier National Park

Note: Yes, I know about Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park World Heritage Site (there's a mouthful), but I was never even close to Waterton, so this page is about Glacier National Park...

Along the Going to the Sun Road
West Entrance/Apgar Village to Lake McDonald	Sunset over Lake McDonald	McDonald Creek
Trail of the Cedars/Avalanche Creek	Avalanche Creek to The Loop	The Loop to Logan Pass
Logan Pass	Logan Pass to St. Mary/East Entrance
Other areas on the East Side
Two Medicine	Running Eagle Falls	Lower Two Medicine
Many Glacier	US-2	Related Links

Introduction

Click to go directly to the slideshow

While the park is named "Glacier", the park wasn't named for the glaciers within the park. The park was named for the glaciers of the last Ice Age, and what they left when they melted some twelve to fifteen thousand years ago. Glacier National Park is over a million acres of deep, clear lakes, wide and deep glacial valleys and knife edged mountains peaks; evidence of the huge ice sheets that covered this area.

Glacier essentially started as a railroad park, one of those places that the early rail companies promoted to get tourists into their trains and resorts. The Great Northern Railway had finished their line through Marias Pass by the late 1890's, and promoted the area for it's scenery. It was a highly successful campaign. Eventually, both the local people and the rail companies lobbied congress to protect the area.

This resulted in Glacier National Park being established as the 10th National Park in 1910. It's mostly credited to a guy named George Bird Grinnell, who was an early proponent to getting this area proclaimed as a National Park. It's Northern border is Canada, and it's Southern border is essentially the railroad tracks.

I've been there twice. The first was in 2001, three days before 9/11, so I was still having fun. It was the obvious next step in visiting the Northwest Parks after Yellowstone. Of course, it snowed in the mountains, closing the Going To The Sun road before Logan Pass on the first day. It was open the next day, with barely any evidence of snow...

The second was in 2006, when I was on my Lewis and Clark trip. All I had to do was get from Great Falls to Missoula, Montana, about 200 miles. Instead, I took a 150 mile detour North just to drive through Glacier, and recapture the park in digital. (As someone once said, what's a hundred miles in Montana?) I mean, it was a beautiful day, far nicer than when I was there in 2001...

The Going To The Sun Road

Cropped map showing The Going To The Sun Road. Click for a full map of Glacier.

After the explosion of the automobile as the ultimate expression of freedom and the subsequent construction of paved roads across America, Congress dictated that there should be an automobile road through the important parts of its National Parks. That's why every National Park has some sort of spectacular main park road.

Glacier's road, and the centerpiece of the park, is the Going To The Sun Road. It's a 50 mile, paved, two-lane, narrow, steep and winding road that took 11 years to build, finally completed in 1932. It was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and was made a National Historic Landmark in 1996.

It's in my top 10 roads to drive, since every mile provides another postcard view. It's a spectacular 50 miles, about half of which is etched into the side of the mountains. (The road is 32 miles from West Glacier to Logan Pass, and 18 miles from Logan Pass to Saint Mary.)

Going to the Sun Road, West Entrance to Lake McDonald

Going to the Sun Road

Day 1 of my first trip was somewhat blunted due to the snow closing the road to Logan Pass. Not to be denied of our tourist needs, we hunted out a place for the sunset, and found one on the Southern shore of Lake McDonald. It wasn't one of those, OH MY GOD sunsets, but it was pretty good, due to the clouds that caused the road closure, lol...

Sunset over Lake McDonald

McDonald Creek

Trail of the Cedars / Avalanche Creek

It was going toward the campground. This is why you don't keep food in your tent.

We were wondering how tough a trail this could be and how prepared we shoud be, when we saw a guy with a walker taking the trail. Well...

Trail of the Cedars

Going to the Sun Road, Avalanche Creek to The Loop

Going to the Sun Road

Going to the Sun Road, The Loop to Logan Pass

Going to the Sun Road, Logan Pass

Considering the continental divide runs through Logan Pass, the 6646 foot elevation isn't that bad. (I know the sign says 6680 feet, but the park map says 6646.)

In addition to being a Visitor's Center, it is also the trailhead for the popular Hidden Lake trail, so parking is non-existant most of the time. If you want to hike the trail, you might be better off parking the car and taking the bus to Logan Pass.

But it sucks if you're driving through the park. There are some spectacular views from the Pass.

Logan Pass

Going to the Sun Road, Logan Pass to East Entrance

Going to the Sun Road

Two Medicine

Two Medicine Entrance

Two Medicine

Running Eagle Falls is named after... Running Eagle, a Blackfeet woman warrior who took her vision quests here. Probably fewer tourists back then.

It's also known as "Trick Falls". Both times when I was here, the water just flowed out of the rock. During the spring melt, the water comes over the top, obscuring the lower fall. At certain times of the year, both falls are visible.

Two Medicine - Running Eagle Falls

Lower Two Medicine

Many Glacier

Many Glacier Entrance

Many Glacier

US-2, Southern Boundary

Marais Pass on US-2

On day 2 of our 2001 Glacier trip, we decided that even if the Going To The Sun road didn't open, we could still visit the East side of the park by detouring South on US-2.

While a successful stratagy, by the time we got back to the GTTSR, it was open all the way to the West Entrance. Oh well.

US-2