Trip 19: Glacier National Park

Goose Island in Saint Mary Lake, Glacier National Park

Many people have told us that Glacier National Park is their favorite park and the most beautiful of all the parks. It certainly lives up to its reputation as being a scenic park, with alpine mountains, spectacular glacier lakes, and green valleys. Carved through the mountains is the infamous Going-to-the-Sun Road. With craggy rock walls on one side and a sheer drop off to the valley floor on the other, the road is as nerve-wracking as it is beautiful. In an effort to control the number of visitors, driving the Going-to-the-Sun Road between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. does require a timed-entry vehicle reservation. The park service also provides shuttle buses from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, departing every 15 to 30 minutes. In addition to driving the road, we chose to book a tour on one of Glacier's famous red buses; dating back to the 1930s, Glacier has the largest fleet of these vintage buses in the world. The tops of the buses roll back, providing great views of the mountains.

We stayed in the park two nights...one night at Lake McDonald Lodge and the other at Many Glacier Hotel. Getting reservations at lodging inside the park can be difficult, as it typically books up a year in advance, but we checked the website frequently several months before we planned to travel and were able to book the two nights. The lodges are rustic and charming and the scenery around them cannot be beat! We did not do much hiking this trip, partly because parking areas at every trailhead were packed and we just never seemed to catch an open spot. This park is very crowded, so if you do hike, expect to see a lot of people. Other than some big horn sheep, we did not see much wildlife, although there are over 1,000 bears in the park, so chances of seeing one on a hiking trail are good and having bear spray was highly recommended!

As for brew pubs, nearby Columbia Falls, Whitefish, and Kalispell all have good brew pubs. We stopped at Backslope Brewing in Columbia Falls; Jeremiah Johnson Brewing Company in Whitefish; and Sacred Waters Brewing Company, Bias Brewing, and SunRift Beer Company in Kalispell. Among the highlights was Live Wire coffee blonde ale at Bias Brewing, with a great roasted coffee flavor and light body. The lodges also served draft beers from local Montana breweries and one of my favorites was the Bluff Charge Huckleberry Ale from Flathead Lake Brewing Company.