Glacier - Day 5: Final Thoughts

I don't know if it was yesterday's Logan Pass shuttle wakeup time that primed all of our internal clocks but no one slept in that much today. Even though we had until 10:30 for check out, we were all packed up and out the door by 9:45 or so. Our plan today was to drive to Helena, stop for sushi lunch, boba, Costco for some groceries (and to refuel), and then...a quick stop for some shopping (the Ulta Beauty was literally across the street from the sushi restaurant, almost seemed sacrilegious NOT to take a quick browse).

I took the morning drive so BaBa promptly took a mid morning nap.  Needless to say, BaBa arrived at lunch in high spirits (haha!). 

The lunch was actually low key good (remember, that means surprisingly good in teen speak 😂). The gyoza and sesame balls in particular got rave reviews from our crew. Black Dragon roll was also a favorite. It was tasty enough we took a photo to make sure the name made it into the records: Nagoya Steakhouse and Sushi. 

So, thoughts on Glacier National Park!

1. Areas. Many Glacier and east side generally was much less crowded. I knew that coming in given how much more populated/built-up the west side is, but it was very noticeable in the drives, parking, and hiking (common to go long stretches without other people in your shot). The east side also seemed less green/blue to me, but that might be because our time there coincided with the weather being worse...but those perfect blue sky turquoise water shots didn't come around until we got to the west side. Comparing the one hike we did do, we saw a lot more wildlife over on the east side. And we really didn't even scratch the surface of other hikes in the area because of the flooding and trail closures. If I came back, I would probably try to focus more on the east side to explore more. 

2. Timing - we spent four full days in the park. It was probably enough to hit "highlights" if your time is limited. But in an ideal world, we could have used 1-2 more days and I would have convinced my crew to embark on some slightly longer hikes. I would have liked to do one of those 8-10 mile hikes...maybe when the twins get a little older and start enjoying physical activity? 😆 Splitting half/half east/west is generally a good call I think. 

3. Lodging - the camping experience that I skipped further convinces me that I will never be a big camper! But the twins said it was a highlight even with all the flooding and rain. Ranking the places we stayed, Columbia Falls condo was certainly the most comfortable and accessible to groceries, restaurants, stores, etc. Driving 30 min to get to the park entrance wasn't great...but also wasn't as much of a hassle as I had worried. You could tell that it was a direct trade off between newer, more comfortable lodging vs. older, more dated lodging based on how far away you drove from a park entrance. Many Glacier would have been the best for hiking accessibility and sunset views, that's probably the largest regret of the trip, that the flooding evacuations and weather forced them to cancel that reservation...maybe we will try that again next trip! St. Mary was just as good as staying in the park from a logistical perspective, though probably wouldn't do the tiny home again because I like having a toilet I don't need to leave the room to get to. I might try to do Airbnb type stays for a larger group, one on east side and then one on west side. 

4. Wildlife - much of the wildlife seems to have acclimated to the human presence. Unfortunately I think tourists don't help the situation as we saw some blatant feeding of wildlife or intentional crowding of the animals to get photos. I would say Glacier didn't feel too different from Big Sky in terms of wildlife encounters...except the wildlife in Big Sky might actually be more "wild" so in that sense close encounters happen more in Glacier.

5. Pricing - lodging was definitely more expensive than the room would seem to be worth. But beyond that, gas actually was reasonable (except for the one station right at St. Mary) and food didn't seem outrageous for our California perspectives. The park entrance and shuttle fees seemed very very reasonable ($35 for 7 days of entry and $1 per person for the shuttle). I can see why visiting National Parks is still a more affordable vacation compared to things like Disneyworld. 

6. Worth it? So going back to my original trepidation about whether the views would be sufficiently impressive, I think the answer is yes. I found the vistas on Going to the Sun Road and up the Continental Divide at Logan Pass to be at the level of Grand Canyon (or higher depending on which type of scenery you are more partial to). It was to me more impressive than the coastal views I got of Alaska, though I admittedly never made it to Denali. And in terms of vistas I liked it more than Yellowstone, though Yellowstone has the prismatic lakes and mud pots and geysers to compensate so again, it's more what your particular bias is. 

7. Timing - I was sad that Grinnell Glacier and Highline weren't open...but I was getting too hot by the end of the hike many days. So I think if I came again, I'd try to catch the tail end of the season, maybe in late August. The wildflowers might be gone and the waterfalls might not be flowing as much, but the weather would be still cooler than heat of late July I think and the trails should all have opened. 

Top 3 from the family:

MaMa - snowfield views off the side of the Hidden Lake Overlook trail, ice slides, and shuttle views off of Going to the Sun road.

BaBa - Moose encounter,  the ice hike, and dinner at Belton Chalet. 

R - ice sliding, seeing so many "Jeffs" all around the park (the twins and B named all of the Columbian ground squirrels Jeff, they were admittedly very very cute), and the sushi outing

L - Shooting her vlog of the trip, seeing the moose on the Grinnell hike, sushi restaurant

That's a wrap for Glacier! I think our next family blog trip won't be until Xmas, when we are hitting up NYC and then Boston. Until then!

Glacier - Day 4: Logan Pass & Hidden Lake Overlook (Again!)

So this was originally meant to be our Highline trail day...YeYe managed to snag shuttle passes (which, due to the new 3 hour parking restriction, is basically the only way to hike Highline this year), but sadly, the trail remains closed for snow conditions. Sadness!

Well, we are still taking the shuttle ride! Opportunity to get some animal sightings!

No animals were seen...but there were some very majestic vistas. 

The shuttle took about an hour - dropping us off at Logan Pass, star attraction of the park. What is the continental divide, you ask? Per National Geographic, it is a naturally occurring ridge of high terrain that separates a continent's river systems. So where the water droplet falls (on which side of the ridge) determines which ocean a raindrop eventually reaches (Pacific or Atlantic). 

So...we decided to hike the Hidden Lake Overlook again, why? Because when we went last time, we apparently never actually made it to the overlook. 😆 This is what happens when we try hiking without YeYe and NaiNai... With our return experience, we were equipped this time with yak tracks, hiking poles, and trash bags to slide on. 

Because of the yak tracks (or maybe also the two more days of snow melt), I thought we went up much more easily. The trash bags were used multiple times. 

Here's a shot of what we thought was the lake on our first trip out and basically where we turned back. 

This area was also very often frequented by the mountain goats. We had to scamper to get out of their way!

In hindsight, we should have realized we hadn't reached the end of the trail. Kind of sad because we had gotten 90% there...but hey, that's why we came back...because THIS is view we were actually supposed to reach:

 So glad we came back!

Postcard shot! (Can you tell I had to magic eraser away some people? 😆)

Official group photo of the Glacier trip:

The snow actually had melted quite a bit from our visit two days ago. (What used to be a thin line exposed on the crest was now a several feet wide exposed rock). Maybe a coincidence, but I think the two extra days of snowmelt also made the field of wildflowers more impressive. 

After the hike, we waited around a bit for the return shuttle down the mountain -- during which I did a quick hop into the Visitor Center. There wasn't much to see there besides the gift shop. Snapped this shot of a taxidermy marmot because I didn't think they were this big!

Eventually, a shuttle showed up. I think probably around a 20 min wait? We chatted with the driver on the way down and learned the National Park Service has 40 buses running every day each with multiple rides, meaning hundreds of trips per day.

I got a view of the other side of the park this time. Equally impressive! This actually includes a shot of part of the Garden Walk, the beginning section of the Highline trail. We would have had to walk on a 3 foot wide trail holding onto chains for safety (because you'd fall into this valley if you slipped!). People actually have died from tripping and falling off the trail. So...in hindsight...perhaps not a horrible thing the trail was not open actually. We saw what the view would have been!

Turns out the recent rain/wind actually caused an avalanche a couple days ago. Here's photo proof of the avalanche covering up the public bathroom facilities that the rangers were still working on digging out. 

Not many shots from the shuttle this time...because I was so tired I fell asleep and didn't wake up again until we got to Lake McDonald. 😬 

Back at Apgar, we had one last educational talk with the park rangers, this time checking out some grizzly, black bear and mountain lion skins. 

I had meant to do a group photo with the Glacier National Park sign but it was already 3PM and members of the crew were starting to get hangry...oh well, maybe next time! 

Tonight being the Fourth of July, YeYe and NaiNai put together a classic Independence Day feast: grilled burgers, corn on the cob, and watermelon. 

It was a great final Glacier day. Tomorrow morning, we check out and make the 6 hour drive back to Big Sky. Will leave final thoughts on the park for tomorrow!

Glacier - Day 3: Trail of the Cedars & Lake McDonald

Today is the planned "rest" day - shorter hike in the AM, lunch at Lake McDonald Lodge, and then a condo swim. Let's see how things go!

Well, first slight hiccup -- finding parking for our planned Trail of the Cedars hike. The hike itself was only 1 mile, but the parking situation was so bad we had to park over a half mile away! I guess we will start the day with the Going-to-the-Sun road hike. The kids were in pretty high spirits - lots of "let's pretend to be Avengers" action as we single file marched down the "highway."

Even this short intro walk had some pretty nice river spots!

The Trail of the Cedars is basically a series of wooden walkways through some ancient cedar trees. Baba posing with some mossy rocks.

NaiNai posing with her first spot of the day: Jack-o'-Lantern tree knot!

Because I sort of promised the kids it was an easier hike day, they protested mightily upon hearing that the Trail of the Cedars actually leads to the Avalanche Lake Trail hike...which is beautiful...but 4 miles long. So BaBa graciously volunteered to stay behind with the kids halfway through while I went ahead with YeYe and NaiNai for some more steps. This was actually a really nice hike -- I liked it better than Grinnell personally -- lots of varied scenery. Here's a vista:

Shaded forest with dappled lighting:

And rushing Creek along much of the way:

I actually turned around about 0.25 miles from the end (I know, why not just keep going!) - well, the twins has been complaining very heavily about how I kept going back on my word and how I said it was only a mile hike today...I knew I was close to the end (with a view of Avalanche Lake and all its waterfalls) but it would probably be another 30 min...mom guilt is strong!

Here's a photo of what I WOULD have seen (YeYe and NaiNai did go all the way). They did say it was pretty crowded but you wouldn't know it from this lovely photo of serenity!

Adding a particularly nice wildlife shot from NaiNai as well:

Meanwhile, the kids were very happy to see me return and start heading back to the cars for lunch.

They even obliged me with some photo posing!

They actually showed me some cool tips with the phone camera -- I didn't know you could do a vertical panorama! This might be one of my favorite shots of the trip so far:

So...next hiccup of the day, because we made it back to the car sooner, we headed down to Lake McDonald Lodge sooner and started on lunch. Well...lunch went by and no sight of YeYe and NaiNai. The lack of reception in the park meant that we had some ships passing in the night moments -- everyone eventually gave up trying to find each other and we took two separate cars back to the condo. I felt a little bad that we didn't really have a proper Lake McDonald outing though so we stopped at a pullout. I was honestly just hoping for a landscape photo...but turns out there was a walk down to a beachy area and a ton of perfect stones for skipping. 

Turns out I'm pretty bad at skipping stones. Everyone else was getting three or four regularly but I could only manage a two-skip (and even that only twice out of a dozen or so attempts). So instead I practiced my new vertical panorama-taking skills. 😆 

Reiya actually was brave enough to go in the actual lake. 

Yeah after that reaction no one else followed her. 

Another obligatory cousin group shot - big smiles all around.

At R's request, a shot of them triumphantly throwing handfuls of pebbles in the lake. 

That's it for today -- another beautiful day in Glacier!

After we made it back to the condo, it was pretty late already so we nixed the swim plan and instead utilized the condos full kitchen to scrounge together a hearty meal of camping supply leftovers. With full bellies, we watched as Argentina nearly got shown up by Cape Verde (crazy!) and then headed to bed. Tomorrow, we have our Logan Pass Shuttles...crossed fingers for Highline opening up!

Glacier - Day 2: St. Mary's Lake & Going-to-the-Sun Road

We woke up to some nice blue skies...glad the rains are behind us! We headed off from our Tiny Home in Saint Mary's Village towards the Rising Sun boat dock.

Much anticipation for this boat ride! Lots of reports of bears in the area...so much so that they actually cancelled the hike portion of the boat trip because the bears have been frequenting the dock area. All the kids have their brand new binoculars at the ready.

On the right here is some of the oldest rock in Glacier, our boat guide said over 1 billion years old. Almost seems like it must be an exaggeration. But apparently this rock was so hard that the glacier that carved down and made the whole valley ended up going around the rock, this leaving the rock behind for us to see. 

Baba enjoying the view. 

They had a rule that only 4 people could be out on the bridge at a time -- so we had to take turns taking group photos. B made a deer spotting...but alas, no bears. 

I thought it was still a nice excursion, would recommend - I don't think it really matters which specific boat ride you do (between Lake Mary or Many Glacier or Lake MacDonald), but it's nice to see the mountains from a different perspective. 

After the boat ride, we grabbed a quick lunch and then packed up the car for our scenic drive down the main attraction at Glacier National Park: Going to the Sun Road. 

Really impressive vistas the entire way. One can definitely see why it's a national park. 

Snapped this pic of Siyeh creek from the car, I'm including it here because I was impressed with my action shot framing. 😊 

But soon we made it to our action adventure stop - Logan Pass and the Hidden Lake Overlook hike. Armed with some hiking poles and raincoats (you'll see why soon enough), off we went. Three hour limit for parking at Logan Pass so we are on the clock for this hike! (As a side note, I can definitely see cars circling for hours in order to get a parking spot to do this hike. We got a little lucky with a family passing by our car while we were waiting...but we overheard someone else saying they'd been waiting for a spot for 45 minutes!)

It was categorized as an "easy-medium" hike but it was actually quite physically challenging because of all the snow. Many rests were taken on the way up. 

New wildlife spotting: Marmot!

We were slipping quite a bit in the melting snow. I was very very glad I had the hiking poles with me! (Well, as you can see in the background here, Baba stole one). The children were slipping too but they seemed to take it in stride. (Haha?)

The effort was rewarded though. We got some out of this world views towards the top. Reminded me of Death Valley in that foreign planet-esque landscape way, though obviously here with snow and ice fields instead of burning hot sand dunes. 

We eventually made it to the very top of the mountain - my attempt at a panorama. 

This is where we embarked on the much anticipated snow sledding runs. See those groves in the snow? That's where we are supposed to sit down and slide away.

Video proof of me sliding. I didn't have a rain coat to sit on, so I tried doing it with a plastic shopping bag. Notice the kids going crazy at the beginning because they were so surprised that I actually participated. The plastic bag method didn't work so well...but it was fun! As the kids say, "low key tuff." (That means unexpectedly cool btw). 

After the slide, somehow slipping around a bit on each step seemed less problematic. Worst case, I just fall and slide again!

This person went about the descent a different way -- they lugged skies all the up and took a run down!

It took us about an hour to get up to the top and down the slide. Getting back to the parking lot after that was probably only 30 min or so. But we still rested at times to enjoy the view. 

Everyone told me they did NOT expect me to slide down. So they were very proud of MaMa!

We made it back to the car well within our 3 hour time limit and continued the drive west on Going to the Sun Road. 

We didn't make any more stops because we were worried about getting to our dinner reservation. Turns out our anxieties were unnecessary -- there really wasn't much traffic to deal with -- I guess the new shuttle pass system must be working? We ended up at Belton Chalet over a hour earlier than our reservation. They were kind enough to still sear us immediately though! L enjoying her first Italian soda!

Belton Chalet had some very nice food. Definitely a culinary highlight of the trip. Here's B's trout:

YeYe's filet with asparagus and carrots:

My ribeye with broccolini:

Nainai 's scallops:

And the huckleberry cheesecake (made with ricotta, very rich, almost a little salty because of the cheese, my preferred flavor profile for cheesecakes!).

The restaurant gave us the cheesecakes for free as a birthday gift for the kids - the waitress was so nice and helpful -- and turns out she is a West Virginia native! I would definitely recommend Belton Chalet's dining room if you're out in West Glacier. It was practically walkable from the West Glacier Park entrance so very convenient for anyone staying on the west side of the park. 

After we finished dinner, we headed out to Meadow Lake Resort & Condos where we would be staying for the remainder of the Glacier trip. Three nights here...felt like such a luxury to be able to actually unpack clothes. 😆 

I forgot to take photos of the condo before we called it a night -- but it is a world of difference from tiny homes and camping tents: three TVs (with world cup channels!), washer & dryer IN the unit, and even a swimming pool and hot tub on the grounds!

We tried not to stay up too late though -- tomorrow, our plan is to hike Trail of the Cedars and check out Lake McDonald Lodge, maybe with some condo pool time thrown in for good measure. Day 2 out!