Glacier National Park

St Mary Lake - Wild Goose Island

After Waterton we dropped back down into Montana to do the other side of the Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park . We stayed in a RV park near Babb so we were close to both the St Mary and Many Glacier entrances to Glacier National Park. When we started on our great American adventure in our RV ten years ago, Glacier NP was one of the first parks we saw and we were in awe. When asked, we have said it was one of the favorite places we’ve visited. 

A view on the Going-to-the-Sun road

That said, now it’s been nine years and hundreds of other great places visited so we were wondering what we would think. Well, I’ll still say the Going-to-the-Sun road is the most beautiful road we've been on in North America and Glacier NP is tied, with Bryce NP and Grand Canyon NP, as the most beautiful places we’ve been to in this country.

I just want to mention, when going to any big-name national park – go in early! This way you beat the crowd. We were going in between 6:30 and 7:00 and had a peaceful time until later morning when the hordes arrived. Trailhead parking at Glacier fills by 8:30 in the summer. The lighting for pictures is so much better and you can only get water reflection pictures on calm water in the morning. 

Sun Point on St Mary Lake

Sherburne Lake along road
to Many Glacier

While at Glacier NP we drove the Going-to-the-Sun road from the east side this time (we started on the west side last time we were here). We just went a little way past Logan Pass, to the big bend, and turned around and headed back due to the west side being too narrow for my comfort with our big dually truck. We hung out at Sun Point on St Mary lake and enjoyed a fantastic setting. The next two days we went into the Many Glacier entrance and hiked. The first day we did the easy hike to Redrock Falls. We saw moose and an amazing view when we got to the lake and falls. The next day I dropped Ann off at the Many Glacier Hotel where she enjoyed the amazing views and an easy hike while I did the hike to Iceberg Lake. The scenery at the hotel and all of the hikes from Many Glacier are just amazing, especially when you get wonderful weather like we did.

View at top of Redrock Falls

Swiftcurrent Lake near hotel
early morning

Swiftcurrent Lake near hotel
early morning

We moved over to the west side of Glacier NP for a couple of days to do some hikes and see it again in some nicer weather as last time we were there it was heavy overcast most of the time. This time we just dealt with some smoke haze. We hiked the easy Johns Lake Loop trail which, in addition to seeing Johns Lake, also goes along McDonald Creek. The other trail I wanted to do was closed due to recovery from last year's fire so we decided to just chill on Lake McDonald after two weeks of on-the-go.

On trail to Iceberg Lake

Iceberg Lake

Chilling on Lake McDonald