Glacier National Park

We spent one week at Glacier National Park, September 8-15, 2021.  We flew into Missoula, Montana which has a very small regional airport.  The 2 hour drive to West Glacier is scenic and we passed huge Flathead Lake and many orchards and cherry stands along the way.  Once we arrived at the park, we drove the entire Going to the Sun road to our first hotel of the trip in the town of St. Mary (one the eastern edge of the park). 

We stayed at St. Mary Village in the Great Bear Lodge for 3 nights. Our plan was to hike and experience the eastern part of Glacier National Park at the beginning of our trip.  The two hotel options at the Many Glacier area were booked, but we were lucky to get 3 nights at St. Mary Village, because it is very close to the entrance to the park on the east side.

Day 1 - Grinnell Glacier 

We heard that the trailhead for Grinnell Glacier fills up early in the morning, so we left about 7 am from St. Mary.  There was construction on the road to Many Glacier and part of the road is a slow gravel road. It took about 40 minutes to get to trailhead.  Parking was already full, but we parked nearby on the side of the road.

On the way to Grinnell Glacier

The 11.2 mile (round trip) hike was busy with lots of people passing on hike. There were views of beautiful mountains the whole way. At one point you walk through a small waterfall and get a little wet.

Waterfall on the way to Grinnell Glacier

When you get to the glacier, there are many ways to go and places to explore. The official trail ends sign right before the top of a waterfall where a sign warns about not walking on the glacier. If you want to get all the way to the glacier, you need to walk along the edge of the top of a waterfall on some stones; you will probably get feet wet without waterproof boots - we did not do it.

It was windy and cool there. We ate lunch overlooking the beautiful Grinell Lake and glacier. There were some interesting red pools with watermelon algae in them.

The area at the end of the hike is large and you can walk for a mile or so.

We heard that there is an option to make the Grinnell Glacier hike shorter by taking two different boats offered by the Glacier Park Boat Company. The boat docks are visible from the trail and taking a boat ride would shorten the part of the hike that goes next to Lake Josephine and Swiftcurrent Lake. We considered this, but found out from their website that we would need to buy tickets one day in advance to do so. It is approximately $34 round trip for the boat, which is a tour, not a fast boat ride. It is possible to buy tickets the same day at the ticket booth. The ticket booth is at Many Glacier Hotel, which is not next to the trail head, though there is a trail from the hotel to the trailhead where you could park if parking is full at the trailhead.

The Grinnell Glacier hike is very exposed, with little shade except in the morning when the sun was still rising behind the mountain. Bring lots of water and wear sunscreen.

Day 2 - Iceberg Lake (plus St. Mary Falls & Virginia Falls)

The smoke and haze increased the day we hiked Iceberg Lake.

We left St. Mary at 7:40 am for Many Glacier, going to the Iceberg Lake trailhead. We found parking at 8:20 am with no problem, as this is a much less popular hike than Grinnell Glacier. There were signs posted warning about bear activity. The trail at one point splits with one path to Iceberg Lake and the other to Ptarmigan Tunnel.  There were pit toilet at two different places on the hike, one is about 2 milles from the trailhead and the other is close to Iceberg Lake. The elevation change after the initial climb (at the beinning), was steady uphill, but not difficult. Saw two big horn sheep way up on the hill - our binoculars really helped.

As we approached the lake, many people said they saw a mama bear and 2 cubs feeding on the left side of Iceberg Lake.  We barely saw them through the trees. Ate lunch at Iceberg Lake and there were some mosquitos. The trail was not busy at first but became more busy, and lots of people were at the lake, including a tour group. There are multiple areas to walk around and view the lake once you arrive.

During the hike we went through lot of areas with trees but some areas are exposed. Recommend wearing pants because lots of narrow trails with greenery close to you.

At the end of the hike we went to the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn for some soft-serve ice cream. We also ate lunch (takeout) at Many Glacier Hotel.

Since rain was in the forecast for the next day, we decided to hike St. Mary and Virginia Falls. This hike goes through a forest that burned from the Reynold's Creek fire in 2015. The waterfall is great, and if you hike .7 miles more to Virginia Falls, there is a beautiful 50 foot tall waterfall with multiple viewing points.

Virginia Falls

Day 3 - Apgar Visitor Center & Rain 

It was a rainy day so we left St. Mary and went to the Apgar Visitor Center on the west side of the park. They were offering a ranger-led forest walk about trees, which we did and found it very interesting. We then checked into the Historic Tamarack Lodge & Cabins where we had one of the cabins (Iceberg cabin). The cabin was very nice and clean and even had a nice porch/deck area. 

We went to dinner at Josephine's Speakeasy, which was Tapas-style. We ate outside on some picnic benches. The food offerings were limited as they cater more to the drinker (the place is connected to a distillery) than the eater, but what we had was very good. There are groceries available at West Glacier Mercantile, where we bought food and at a nearby restaurant found some delicious Huckleberry Pie, which we ate back at our cabin.

Day 4 - Logan Pass and Highline Trail 

Looking down from Highline Trail

We left cabin at 7:10 am for Logan Pass, about an hour-long drive. There was lots of fog and clouds on the way up Going to the Sun Road, and we were able to get a parking place at Logan Pass when we arrived a little after 8:00 am. Parking is difficult at Logan Pass, and it is recommended you arrive here early in the morning. We felt lucky to get a spot.

Listened to the National Park Service audio tour on the way. The audio files (from 2007) are not user friendly and cannot stream without cell phone service, so we downloaded the night before. Some interesting facts were shared, despite the age of the audio tour.

We were going to wait in the car until the fog cleared, but in just a few minutes it cleared, although it kept coming back during our hike. We planned to do Hidden Lake Overlook hike, but it was still closed due to bear activity. So instead we hiked Highline Trail. It was a great hike, up very high with great views. We had some clouds and fog, but much of it was well below us. There are high cliffs and a small part of the hike has a cable (a garden hose actually) to hold onto. If you have a very strong fear of heights, you may not like this hike. In general, though, the heights are not difficult to manage. Part of the hike goes through trees where there is a strong evergreen smell that was amazing. 

The trail is very long, and we only did a part of it, to Haystack Butte and then a little further to a small waterfall (about 4.2 miles one way).

Haystack Butte

Many people hike the Highline trail to the end (an area on Going to the Sun Road called "The Loop") and then take the free shuttle back to Logan Pass Visitor Center parking lot.  However, the free shuttle stops on Labor Day. The trail provides access to Granite Park Chalet and there is also a viewing point for Grinnell Glacier.  

We ate lunch at the base of Haystack Butte. On our way back to Logan pass we saw a large bighorn sheep very close to the trail. He walked around us and then walked on part of the trail, after seeming to look us all straight in the eye! 

On the Highline Trail, we hiked 8.3 miles in 4 hours and 23 minutes with many stops and lunch at Haystack Butte area. This was an excellent trail but very busy.

Johns Lake Loop Trail

We drove down Going to the Sun Road to the John Lake Trail loop.  This trail crosses Sun Road a couple of times and also crosses McDonald Creek which is beautiful shade of blue and has rapids. Most of the trail is deep in forest which is lush with moss and cedar and hemlock trees, with some very large trees. We parked on North McDonald road, near the one-way bridge and did the trail counter clockwise, while it seemed everyone else was doing the trail clockwise because there is parking on other side of one-way bridge that we didn’t know about. The trail was 2.4 miles and took us a leisurely 65 minutes to complete.

Had a nice dinner at Glacier Grille (on the main highway) with lots of salad, pizza, burger options as well as fish fry option. Also offered a homemade pie with Huckleberry as well as Huckleberry shake options and Montana Mud Pie. Our server was wonderful (a student from Turkey). Later in the evening, we went to back to Lake McDonald Lodge to see the sunset. It is a really very cool looking lodge inside and out. Sunset was pretty on the waters edge by the lodge.  Bought some Huckleberry pancake mix to take back home to share.

Sunset at Lake McDonald

Day 5 - Trail of the Cedars (+Avalanche Lake) & Rocky Point Hikes

Monument Falls across Avalanche Lake

Avalanche Lake 

Trail of the Cedars

We checked out of our Iceberg Cabin after eating hard boiled eggs in our big kitchen there. Went to Apgar visitor center and Hidden Lake trail was still closed, so we drove to Trail of the Cedars (and Avalanche Lake) trailhead and got lucky to get a parking spot. Arrived a little before 9. Parking lots were all filled when we arrived and there was a big traffic backup 10 minutes later with so many people arriving and no parking to be found. Recommend getting there before 8 to be safe. 

The Trail of the Cedars (a loop flat hike, some on boardwalk) and Avalanche Lake hikes were very nice hikes fully covered in shade, with a lot of great evergreen smells. There is quite a bit of uphill hiking on Avalanche Lake trail - more than expected. There are many downed trees from avalanche microbursts. Once you get to the end at Avalanche Lake, you can walk along the pebble beach for most of the lake. If you want to cross to other side, you need to go through some shallow water, which may have been high this day. If you have poles and waterproof hiking shoes, you will be fine. We could see the reflection of pretty fall colors on the lake. 

This was a busy area with lots of people, one of the busiest hikes we have done. There is a pit toilet at the end of this hike. When done with the Avalanche Lake portion of the hike, we finished the Trail of the Cedars which featured many old and different types of trees. The total hike was 7.4 miles round trip by the time we returned to our car.

We stopped at Lake McDonald Lodge boat dock and put our names on list to take a 8 HP motor boat out on the lake for an hour for $28. He estimated wait time was 2-3 hours, and we missed our time because we decided to check out Rocky Point Trail - we will have to do this next time.

Rocky Point Trail

The view from Rocky Point

We drove to Apgar village for more ice cream and to see the Nature Center which was closed for the season. Then we drove around the lake a little to get to the Rocky Point parking lot. It is a .5 mile gravel road to get to the parking area, just past the Fish Creek Campbround.  It was a very nice hike that ends at a small bluff overlooking Lake McDonald. The water looks beautiful from this high vantage point, and you can walk around Rocky Point before returning. We drove to Whitefish and checked into Towneplace Suites hotel. We drove to the cute downtown Whitefish for dinner and ate at McKenzie River Pizza Grille & Pub.

Day 6 - Two Medicine Area and Scenic Point Hike

We left Whitefish at 8 and drove to Apgar Visitor Center to check to see if the Hidden Lake trail had re-opened - it was still closed. Talked to a ranger who suggested we drive 1 hour 20 minutes (one-way) to the Two Medicine area and hike the Scenic Point trail there. Found the trailhead parking lot about 3.5 miles from the Two Medicine entrance/pay station. There are no bathrooms here, but if you drive a short distance to the lake there are both flush toilets and pit toilets. The camp shop was closed for the season already. 

The hike starts out in a young forest with aspen and evergreens, and smelled so fragrant. The sign says the hike will be 3.1 miles one way to Scenic Point.  This is not accurate and the hike is 4 miles one way. Shortly after you start the hike, there is a short option to see the Apikuni Falls with a little trail off to the right. After the falls detour, the hike heads uphill fast. There are a series of switchbacks in shale and loose rock. The trees (Bristlecone pine trees – many look dead but a fellow hiker said they may be alive – and other evergreens) thin out and it becomes open with great views in several directions. The wind would occasionally gust as it makes its way through the mountains. We saw lots of animal scat, but no animals other than chipmunks. The final destination offers beautiful views of the plains on one side and mountains and Two Medicine Lake on the other. Not sure if always so windy, but it was intense at times it was very hard to walk against it.  The Scenic Point hike is 8.0 miles round trip including the short detour to the falls. A beautiful trail and virtually empty - saw perhaps 10 other hikers the whole day.

Lodging

We stayed 3 nights at St. Mary Village followed by 2 nights in Iceberg Cabin at Tamarack Lodge, and finally 2 nights at Towneplace Suites in Whitefish.

Historic Tamarack - Iceberg Cabin

Porch of Iceberg Cabin

View from St. Mary Village Lodge room's balcony