Glacier National Park

One of the most amazing highlights of Glacier National Park is a drive on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. We stayed at St. Mary's Campground located on the East side of the park. These photos are a combination of our two drives along the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

As you can see, there was plenty of snow left when the Going-to-the-Sun Road opened on June 21th this year.

Plowing the Going-to-the-Sun Road is a monumental challenge each year. Unpredictable spring snow storms or other weather related events can slow down plowing progress. It is not uncommon for plowing crews to need to re-plow sections of park roads when weather events happen.

You will never see anything like it! But be warned - the roads are busy and narrow! Take your time, take it easy. There are plenty of places to pull off and take photos, or to take a walk if you feel like it.

You can see in this photo that height of the snow is above the roof of many of the vehicles driving the road.

Because portions of the road hug the mountainside, there are a few tight curves, but thousands of vehicles have safely made the journey from one side of the park to the other.

This engineering marvel spans 50 miles through the park's wild interior, winding around mountainsides and treating visitors to some of the best sights in northwest Montana.

In June, there is an abundance of water flowing over and under the road.

The first cars over the road drove on gravel; not until 1952 was the highway completely paved.

The mountain scenery is unsurpassed as you can see in the next several photos. It is as close to the wild that one gets while traveling a paved highway.

This is a view of the road heading towards West Glacier. The road parallels the McDonald Creek all the way to the west entrance of the park.

This view is looking North towards Flathead National Forest.

To us, the best part of the Going to the Sun Road was from Logan Pass to The Loop. Once pass this section, the park loses some of its uniqueness, at least for us. We feel the west side of the park is similar to many other wooded State parks. We drove the entire road and then drove along the southern edge of the park to return to St Mary's on the east side. If we had it to do over again, we would have turned around at the Loop and headed back to St Mary's.

The maximum grade is six percent and it climbs to 6,646 feet at Logan Pass where it crosses the Continental Divide. The designers worked to make the road blend unobtrusively into its natural setting. They succeeded.

The roadway goes through tunnels and rides across stone arches. In places, great stone buttresses hold it against the mountainside.

There are a few people who become terrified going over a lofty highway cut into a rocky cliff. They may be excused for not wanting to cross Glacier National Park on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway. For everyone else, it is an experience not to be missed. I must confess that Kathy did fairly well sitting in the right seat on our way back up to Logan Pass.

As we approach Logan Pass we see several people walking around one of the parking areas.

Just east of the Logan Pass, an area known as Big Drift often records over 100 feet of snowfall, much of which has been pushed over the continental divide by the prevailing westerly winds during the winter. The pass is closed during the winter due to avalanche hazards and the virtual impossibility of keeping the Going-to-the-Sun Road open, yet is generally open from the end of May until mid October. The pass provides an excellent vantage point to view wildlife. A visitor is almost guaranteed to spot a mountain goat as they have become adjusted to summertime human visitation.

The goat seems to be interested in the couple looking into a hole in the snow. The goat decides to investigate....

After careful consideration, no food for me, he decides that it not worth hanging around and walks away.

Part of the story of Going-to-the-Sun is the tourists. The parking facilities and necessary amenities allowing people to reach the attractions, the shuttles and buses for those who choose not to drive, and the provisions to accommodate the diverse crowd of sightseers, hikers, and campers who use the park are all part of the highway's history and future.

St. Mary's - Virginia Falls Hike

The hike to St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls begins from the St. Mary Falls Trailhead, located 10.6 miles west of the St. Mary Entrance Station on the Going-To-The-Sun Road.

These photo are for Mom showing some of the great flowers seen throughout the hike. The yellow flowers are called "Orange Sneezeweed"; large yellow-orange flower heads and drooping rays. I could not identify the blue flowers.

The white upright flower is called Bistort (Buckwheat Family). They are a favorite snack for bears.

These flowers are called Scarlet Paintbrush. A cluster of bright red, showy brats which resemble a brush.

At six-tenths of a mile you’ll reach the St. Mary River. Soon after you’ll hear the thunder of crashing water, and in another quarter-mile, will finally reach St. Mary Falls, one of the more spectacular waterfalls in the park.

St. Mary Falls drops roughly 35 feet in three separate tiers, with the two largest being the most photogenic. A smaller waterfall can be found below the footbridge. Even on a hot August day the rush of water forces a cool breeze down the gorge. You’ll immediately notice the incredibly beautiful aqua-green color of the pools below the falls.

Soon the trail enters the canopy of a dense pine forest. Roughly one-quarter of a mile from the parking area you’ll reach the Piegan Pass Trail junction. Hikers should turn right here, and then walk a few more yards where you’ll reach another junction to the trail for Virginia Falls.

To visit Virginia Falls take the fork to the right, which is called the Virginia Falls Viewpoint Trail, for less than a tenth-of-a-mile to reach the base of the upper falls.

This is another multi-tiered waterfall, with the main falls dropping roughly 50 feet, another secondary chute, and then a short cascade section at the bottom.

Stepping up to the base of the main falls and feeling the spray and blast of cool air is like instant air conditioning, even on a mild June day. You may want to note that the rocks around the falls are quite slick.

Hidden Lake Overlook Hike

The trail to the Hidden Lake Overlook begins from the west side of the Logan Pass Visitor Center. Once on the back side of the visitor center, you will see the Trailhead.

The entire length of this hike is completely open and exposed as you proceed through the alpine meadows known as the Hanging Gardens. Visitors should expect a lot of sun and wind at this high elevation.

We did see several people carrying skies and snowboards. You will see why later in this post.

The trail normally begins as a paved surface for a short distance, before turning into a raised boardwalk. As you can see the boardwalk has been replaced with lots ans lots of snow. At this elevation snow tends to linger around well into the summer. The snow did not distract us, we put on our Yaktraxs for extra footing and headed out.

Although you cannot see them clearly in this photo, our path was marked by yellows stakes which is evident in the following photo. Just wanted to show you the hill we had to navigate!

As you proceed up trail during the early portions of this hike, 8760-foot Clements Mountain will dominate the view directly in front of you .

I took this photo to show you the park Going-to-the-Sun Road leading up to the Logan Pass visitors center. Parking can also be an issue during the peak tourist season. The lot was filling up fast as we arrived.

After climbing a steep hill, a little more than a half-mile from the visitor center, the trail shifts to a more southwesterly course, and begins heading in the direction of 8684-foot Bearhat Mountain. 9125-foot Mt. Reynolds and 8016-foot Heavy Runner Mountain will be on your left.

At 1.5 miles you’ll reach the Hidden Lake Overlook where you’ll find outstanding panoramic views of the lake and surrounding mountains. Looking towards the south you can even see Gunsight Mountain and Sperry Glacier in the far off distance. Mountain goats are fairly common in the area around the overlook.

The lake is not seen in this photo because its still frozen and snow covered. The lake is directly below the mountain in this photo. It travels to the left in this photo. You can just barely see it between the mountains to the left.

Here's a look on the right as we begin our hike back to the visitor center.

Remember the boys with the skies and snowboard, you can see some of them climbing up to the top of the Reynolds mountain. We watched them for some time hoping to get a photo of them skiing down the mountain. We also noticed that when they reached the top, some headed off to the other side of the mountain.

Believe it or not Kathy captured a coyote in the upper left of this photo. We did enlarge the photo later to verify she did in fact see a coyote.

This 3-mile round trip is normally an easy hike with no snow on the ground. The snow was very deep in some sections and the warm day made footing a little slippery at times. Perhaps the most famous person to ever hike this trail was George H. W. Bush. In 1983 the then-Vice President hiked to Hidden Lake and fished for trout for several hours.