For our last day in Glacier, we planned to visit the most popular part of the park: West Glacier. This meant driving along the scenic Going-to-the-Sun Road, which cuts right across the heart of the park.
The road itself is around 50 miles long, and its narrow passes and steep drop-offs make it a main attraction for visitors. We left around 7:00
am so we would have plenty of time to pull over and take frequent pictures. Heading from East to West, our first stop was the Logan Pass visitor's center.
This visitor's center is also the starting point of the park's most iconic trail-- the Highline Trail-- so the parking lot fills up very early. It's not uncommon to see cars pulled to the side of the road waiting for people to leave the lot so they could get in. But, we had other plans, so we didn't bother to park. A few hundred feet up the road is a lookout point, where you can clearly see the crowds of people walking along the Highline trail. And you can definitely see why the trail is so popular. A slim path winds about midway up the mountain before disappearing into the trees.
We made pretty good time on GTTS, despite stopping many times to take in the views.
The Weeping Wall
There are over 200 waterfalls withing GNP, but being the bird-loving women we are of course this one was our favorite!
Apgar Village surrounds the placid Lake McDonald. It is an adorable assortment of shops and lodging with a ranger-led nature center. We had fun learning from the displays and talking to the ranger about local flora.
Heidi was feeling arthritic after the first two days' activities, so we were going to skip the kayaking. But once we saw how pristine and calm Lake McDonald is, we just had to get out on that water--arthritis be damned!
The kayak rentals are super affordable. A tandem kayak is only $18.50 for the hour, and the renter generously gave us an extra 20 minutes for free.
We inquired about birds on the lake, and we were told there were a pair of young golden eagles around, but they hadn't seen them in a couple of weeks, so they thought the birds may have left the nest and moved on to a new territory. We were very surprised when we heard not one but BOTH of them in the trees right along the shore! Luckily, Claudia had her digital camera ready.
[Lake McDonald video]
If you know anything about us, you know we love drinking beer and visiting breweries. Whitefish, MT is about a 20 minute drive from the West Glacier entrance to the park, and they are known to have some of the best breweries in the state. So, we chose the nearest one (technically in Columbia Falls) and drove there for lunch and a flight.
The beer and food at Backslope Brewing were fantastic! The bartenders there recommended we also try Bonsai Brewing Project in Whitefish.
We also stopped at Great Northern Brewing Company
By the time we reached Sacred Waters Brewing, we were feeling a little wiped out. We played a couple rounds of our favorite bar game Mancala, and struggled to finish one pint of beer each.
As cute as it was in there, we had a long drive back to Rising Sun campground and we did not want to navigate that narrow mountain road after dark! So we boogied out of there and safely navigated our way back to the park.
post-brewery happy faces
On the way, we had to stop just one more time to capture these newlyweds getting the most epic wedding shots we've ever seen.
Tomorrow we have a train to catch at 9:40 am and it's back to Providence for us!
Thanks, Glacier. It's been the trip of a lifetime!
Claudia & Heidi
This featured blog entry was written by baecation2016 from the blog Glacier National Park.
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