Glacier National Park (May 30 - June 9, 2021)
“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit” - Edward Abbey
Of all the places we planned to visit, I was most nervous about our visit to Glacier National Park. I’ve been following a Friends of Glacier National Park Facebook group for several months and had been reading about all sorts of things that can go wrong on a visit there. All National Parks are seeing record numbers of visitors this year so there’s a shortage of accommodations and rental vehicles in the Glacier area. We had our campsite reserved months ago and obviously had a vehicle with us but what if it broke down? What if something went wrong with our camping reservations? The one thing I was most nervous about was the weather. Because of snow, Glacier’s peak season is very short with July and August being the best times to visit. Once again, we would be visiting a National Park preseason. From what I gathered, visiting in late May/early June could literally mean anything weather-wise. There was a good chance we’d see a lot of rain and even snow. We could deal with rain but it was the possibility of snow that made me nervous. To add an extra special twist to my nervousness, we learned earlier this spring that Glacier would be implementing a ticketed entry system to control the crowds. Only a few hundred tickets would be released each day. There are a few areas of the park that you can visit without a ticket but most areas, including entrance on the west side where we were staying, could only be accessed with an entry ticket. Getting an entry ticket to Glacier was much like getting a ticket to the shuttle buses in Zion National Park. You just have to hope you’re quick enough and lucky enough to score one. We were in Parowan Gap Utah, ready and waiting online the day our entry tickets became available and thank goodness, Charley was able to secure our ticket. They sold out in minutes so we felt incredibly lucky again! Each entry ticket is good for seven days so we were able to drive into the park seven days of our ten-day visit. Thankfully as we’ve made our way across the country I’ve learned to tame the worrier in me a bit and by the time we arrived in Glacier I was just super excited to be there.
Much of my excitement came from the weather forecasts we’d been seeing the week prior to our arrival. How lucky were we to be arriving in Glacier just as the western part of the country was experiencing a spring heatwave? Temperatures were in the 70’s and 80’s for the first several days of our visit with more seasonable temps in the 50s and 60s with clouds and a little rain toward the end. It was wonderful! Just as exciting was having some loved ones join us for this leg of our trip. We knew we’d be doing a fair amount of hiking in Glacier and therefore invited the most prolific hikers we know, our daughter Lauren and her boyfriend Brian, to join us. We picked them up at the Glacier Airport the day after we arrived and dropped them off as we were leaving town so they were able to spend nine whole days with us.
Part of the reason the prime visitation window for Glacier is so short is due to the Going-to-the-Sun Road opening and closure. Going-to-the-Sun Road is a scenic 50-mile alpine drive that connects the west side of Glacier with the east side. We knew that it was unlikely that the Going-to-the-Sun Road would be open during our visit (plowing of the road isn’t usually finished until the end of June) but also knew that there were so many other things to do and see there, it was worth a visit regardless. With the ticketed entry system and the Going-to-the-Sun road still closed, for the most part, crowds were manageable. We had no trouble parking at trailheads, hiking trails were relatively quiet and our wait times to get into the park were short. Having visited ten National Parks so far, this was a welcome change. Crossing the Going-to-the-Sun Road would obviously be awesome but it’s predicted that even with the ticketed entry system, Glacier is going to be a very busy place this summer. I’m happy we visited when we did and we were able to just enjoy the experience.
We certainly made the most of our time in Glacier and could have spent another ten days without repeating an activity or hike. We hiked some easy trails, some moderate trails, and one trail that was a little more intense. All worth every step, sore leg muscle, and black bear encounter. Lauren and Brian treated us to a (mother’s day, father’s day, anniversary gift) scenic float down the Middle Fork of the Flathead River with Glacier Raft Company. The combination of warm temperatures and snowmelt had the river running really fast so to keep our two-hour scenic float to two hours it had to be extended by 6 miles (for a total of eleven miles) otherwise our float would have been completed in an hour. Our guide and the other group of ladies in our raft made it so much fun and it was a wonderful experience to share with our kids.
With the Going-to-the-Sun Road closed, we debated on whether or not to tackle the additional mileage and time that it would take to get to the east side of the park via an alternate route. I’m so glad we ultimately decided to. It was a complete day trip but well worth the time. It was one of the cooler days of our visit and the wind had picked up, but views on the east side were just as incredible as the west. We didn’t have time to do any hiking but saw some interesting wildlife – mountain goats from a distance, a yellow-bellied marmot, a beautiful red fox trotting down the middle of the road, and a moose on our drive back, plus we enjoyed a delicious home-style fried chicken dinner at Johnson’s of St. Mary.
Since we didn’t have an entry ticket for our last day in the area, Charley and I took a two-hour horseback ride through the Flathead National Forest which surrounds Glacier National Park. We had gone horseback riding on a trip to New Hampshire a few years ago and loved it so much that we made horseback riding a “must do” for this trip. Glacier was the perfect place to check it off our list. Our guides, Swan Mountain Outfitters, were wonderful and our ride was a relaxing end to our stay in Glacier. While we were horseback riding, Lauren and Brian were able to hike into Glacier (no ticket needed), rent a canoe and they enjoyed a few hours of paddling Lake McDonald.
At this point, I’ve given up ranking or trying to pick a favorite National Park. They’re all unique and special in their own way but I would probably best describe Glacier as magical (I think I said the same thing about the Grand Canyon). The snow-covered mountains are simply amazing to look at. The water is an incredible shade of turquoise blue (very difficult to capture in a photo by the way), the views are spectacular in any direction and the wildlife is awesome. I’ve come to the conclusion that you just can’t have a bad day in Glacier no matter the weather. But I’m glad it didn’t snow!
**Many thanks to Brian for sharing photos for this post
