“USA 🇺🇸 ~Montana Glacier National Park and Surrounding Area”

• May 16, 2023
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

This visit to a nation park was a long time coming; as I’ve wanted to come here for probably 20 years!

While I’m glad we made the trip over, from Polson, as we did see some pretty scenery, and it was great to get out and play, not knowing the Park was under major roadway construction was a complete shock!! There was zero information to this effect on their dot gov website.
Had we known, we wouldn’t have gone. As it was, ~Not a big bang for our Buck on this adventure.

We figured The Going-To-The-Sun Road would be closed, as it says so on their webpage. BUT, it was (partially) open.
Other roads mentioned on the websites were said to be open, BUT they were closed.

Out of the 50 mile rim-drive; from east to west, we only got to drive 14 of them. Even worse, nine of those miles were under big time construction! There were no pullouts; all blocked with cones, so getting photos, moving, in bumper to bumper traffic was challenging. It was dusty, noisy and chaotic. There will be no wildlife viewing for awhile, since the critters smartly disappeared for the duration, and there were too many visitors, and not even enough flaggers.

Let’s just say, we have a Free National Park Pass for life, and I wanted a refund! OMG, this was no place for a family vacation at this time. 

For reals, it is not worth the Park entrance fee right now.

We were told the roads had lots of snow on them, still, but in reality, with record high temps, for days in a row, the snow is melting faster than they have the number of staff they need, to sweep the roads up, and open them.
We still have no idea what Glacier National Park is really like in its entirety. We barely got a peek. One day, we will try to go back.

Glacier, a National Park in northwestern Montana, takes its name from the many glaciers and glacial forces that shaped its rugged topography over two million years.
While the park is still home to more than a dozen glaciers, even more impressive are the massive U-shaped valleys and hulking granite peaks carved by long-ago ice flows.

Fast Facts

Established: 1910

Size: 1,013,322 acres

Annual Visitors: 3.3 million

Visitor Centers: Apgar, St. Mary, Logan Pass

The Continental Divide splits the road at the 6,646-foot-high Logan Pass, where a visitor center and bookstore provide shelter from the chilly highland weather.

Mountain Goats, bighorn sheep, and Marmots inhabit the rocky slopes around Logan Pass, which is also a hub for several great hikes, including the family-friendly Animal Super Heroes Trail and the 1.5-mile nature trail to Hidden Lake.
The western end of Lake St. Mary, where trails lead to three splendid waterfalls, is another great place to hike.

⬆️ West Entrance

Apgar Village anchors the western end of the road with its lakeside hotels, restaurants, shops, and visitor center.
During summer, scenic cruises run along Lake McDonald; kayaks, canoes, rowboats, and paddleboats are also available for rent.
Camas Road heads north from the village to lakeshore access at Rocky Point and a bridge over the North Fork Flathead River that provides a great perch for snapping scenic shots of the front range.
A rough gravel road continues into the park’s rarely visited North Fork Area and super-secluded camping spots beside Kintla Lake and Bowman Lake.

⬆️ The Going-to-the-Sun Road was completed in 1932 and is a spectacular 50 mile, paved two-lane highway that bisects the park east and west. It spans the width of Glacier National Park, crossing the Continental Divide at 6,646-foot-high Logan Pass. It passes through almost every type of terrain in the park, from large glacial lakes and cedar forests in the lower valleys to windswept alpine tundra atop the pass. Scenic viewpoints and pullouts line the road, so motorists can stop for extended views and photo opportunities. The road is well worth traveling in either direction, as the view from one side of the road is much different than from the other

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Coram ⬇️

We planned a little fun for this trip, by renting a cabin for the night; just seven miles from the Park entrance. It was cute, cozy and clean.
It is called Sky-Eco General Store and Cabins.

The plans I made ahead of time, had to be adjusted, since we no longer have head lights on Jonah. We have all other lights, but this means we can’t drive after dark, or even close to it, here in Montana.
We originally wanted to enter the park before 6AM, which is before the gates are manned with Rangers. Too dark to drive that early in the morning. So, we really didn’t need to spend the night at all. There are certainly no wildlife to spy, in early morning, with all the construction going on…oh well.

We are also suppose to do a seven-hour boat trip on Saturday, out of Bigfork, but same issue. The day ends at sunset, with a stop on an island, to view wildlife, just before dusk.
We are 50 minutes from Bigfork, so it will definitely be too dark to drive back to Polson, for sure.  
We will ask the mechanic at the valve check tomorrow, if he can take a look-see at our headlight issue, but we already added him installing new seat belts for us. Hopefully they have time. The good news is this. Very soon, we will be in “the land of the midnight sun,” and no headlights will be necessary, till September. Ha!

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Hungry Horse ⬇️

After driving over from Polson, and visiting the Park, we were famished. We headed for Hungry Horse; just down the road from our stay in Coram.
Very expensive, at a $40 bill, but we ate nummy pulled pork sandwiches. Across the way from the Great Bear Diner, was a place we just knew we could get a HuckleBerry Pie, but settled to share a piece, of one for $8 a slice!

We also stopped at the local Wildlife Museum ⬇️

Earlier, on our 1.5 hour road trip to Glacier National Park, we thought it would be a great idea to stop and get A & W Root Beer Floats, since we rarely see A&W around, much anymore. 
Long story short, we learned styrofoam cups with plastic lids do not connect. I ended up spilling my entire drink…. All over me, while sitting in Jonah! Jonah barely got messed up, thankfully, as it all soaked into my sweatshirt and leggings!
It was extra, super fun, we were only doing an overnight, so I had no other clothes, besides my jammie’s.

I ended up buying a souvenir T-shirt at the West Village, that was actually reasonably priced, before  departing the Park.
In no time at all, though, as the ice cream dried, my leggings smelled like soured milk, which is the same as saying, I smelled like sour milk.

In more fun, the big guy has spent hours, after we got back today, trying to replace a heating element in our aqua hot water system. We have no hot water, till we get this fixed, for showers and dishwashing.
Y’all know, life can and is quite unpredictable. All we can do is hold on and roll with the punches!

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Coming Up ⬇️

In the morning, we are up early, to take Jonah to Kalispel, to get her 500 l-mile valve check and oil change done. She has a brand new engine, so we are breaking it in, carefully.
Had we not been so high on the miles with her, already. we might have driven to the East side of Glacier, via the highway, but we would have been way over the 500 mile check, as Kalispel is 50 miles away from Polson, for the appointment