Enjoying the Solitude of Nature...With About a Bazillion Other People

August 14 - August 15
Glacier National Park

Glacier is one of the places that I have most looked forward to visiting. The scenery did not disappoint, but I was not expecting the massive crowds. The park has had record setting numbers of visitors this summer. With limited access points to the park and its trails, it was a challenge to find places to park, visit, or take day hikes.

We were staying at a campground not far from the West Glacier entrance, so we made a quick trip to the Apgar Visitor Center the night before we planned to explore the park to pick up maps and hiking guides so that I could make a plan. Since it was early evening, we were able to find a place to park, but the Center and bookstore were still super busy. We took a short drive to get our first glimpse of the park.

West end of Going-to-the-Sun Road

The next morning, we decided to drive a good portion of the Going-to-the-Sun Road that traverses the park, hike in a few miles, and have a picnic lunch. There is a shuttle that also makes several stops on this road, but we wanted to be able to come and go as we pleased and also leave extra water and gear in the truck. The Sun Road is rumored to be one of the most beautiful drives in the country. Not an exaggeration. It was spectacular. Unfortunately, some of the views were affected by the smoke from nearby wildfires and from clouds and rain moving in. It was still awesome.

You'll notice that Gavin is the only one in any of the pictures from Going-to-the-Sun Road. Don and Gabriella refused to get out of the truck because the drop-off is immediate and ridiculously extreme. It was a good thing that Gavin and I were the ones on the passenger side of the truck. The other two never would have survived being that close to the edge for miles on end! I do have to give props to Don for navigating the dually on that road. Talk about a tight squeeze! Throw in rock outcroppings and thousands of driving tourists and it was an experience.

I knew that parking would be limited at the trailheads for all of the day hikes, so I had a couple of options picked out. My first two choices were mobbed with no place to park the truck, which was probably just as well, because hiking on a super crowded trail isn't much fun anyway. We finally found a place to land and decided to eat lunch at a picnic area there before hiking in. About five minutes into our picnic, the wind picked up and it started to rain. We decided that it just wasn't meant to be that day and packed up and moved on.

The remainder of Going-to-the-Sun Road was just as impressive and crowded. The kids did get a treat - we came around a bend and saw a load of cars pulled over to the side of the road and people pointing. There was a young grizzly up the hill not too far from the road! It was on the driver's side, so I wasn't able to get a picture, but it was exciting none the less. I was just happy that we were in the truck when the bear made its appearance so we didn't have a reenactment of our hike in the Grand Tetons in 2012. Back then, when the rest of us were carefully trying to back away from the bear and reach safety, a young Gabriella was rushing toward the bear to get a better look!

Ready to escape the crowds, we made our way out of the east side of the park and decided to skirt around the south side and hopefully circumvent the rain storm at the same time. This ride had some beautiful views as well.

We stopped at Bear Creek to stretch our legs and play in the water a little bit. What a gorgeous spot!

Gabriella "improving" a tiny waterfall - she takes her work very seriously

When we had our fill, we headed back to the campground to eat at the cafe there. It's pretty much just one guy on the grill seven days a week, but that Gene could make a mean steak. The next morning, I thought I was being smart and pointed us to the North Fork area of the park, which should have been much less crowded. We were hoping to do a nice hike around Bowman Lake and be able to stop and wade or swim along the way. Gabriella never passed up a chance to get wet!

We headed up Outer North Fork Road, which is just outside the western border of the park. The majority of the road is unpaved. It was pretty dusty, but not too bad. We made a stop in Polebridge, which is a tiny, off-the-grid "town" that has a long history and now offers a saloon/cafe and a general store/bakery that operate on solar and generators. We had lunch at the Northern Lights Saloon before venturing into the park.

Once arriving at the ranger station, we were told that they weren't allowing any more vehicles on the road to Bowman Lake or the farther north Kintla Lake because there were already too many people. We were just not having any luck. The ranger recommended we go down the "road" to Logging Creek and mentioned that we should be okay because we have a truck. We probably would have been okay despite the rough, uneven, hilly, winding rocky path - not really a road. The problem arose whenever a vehicle came in the opposite direction, which did happen three or so times. There was no room for more than one vehicle, so someone had to find a way to pull into the woods and let the other truck go past. In doing so, our truck ended up kind of scratched up and Don will have to try to buff out all of the marks and hope they aren't too deep.

After almost an hour of driving on this road (only about seven miles!) we were able to park at the Logging Creek trailhead. I was hoping that we could still get our feet wet in the creek, but the trail doesn't go anywhere near the actual water. We could have hiked another four miles in to get to a lake, but by this point it was getting late in the day and I think we had lost our enthusiasm, so we shortened the hike, turned around, and walked back to the truck for the trek back out to the main (but still unpaved) road.

The dusty, worn-out hikers

The creek was down at the bottom of that ravine somewhere

We stopped back in Polebridge to the Mercantile to pick up drinks and baked goodies for later - they are known for their huckleberry bearclaws.

The drive back was nice. The unpaved road seemed pretty good now compared to that park "road" we traveled on.

Please pardon the bug-splattered windshield!

We were ready to call it quits for the day - all in all it was about a seven-hour adventure. We headed back to camp and threw some chicken sausage on the grill to kick back and relax for the night. The rest of the week was spent seeking out less-crowded locales, which I'll tell you about in my next post.