Glacier National Park Road Trip

 

Glacier National Park is one of the most popular national parks in the United States. It is located at Northwestern Montana bordering with Canada. In fact, you can actually hike to Canada via hiking trails to Canada's Waterton Park. The unique aspect of Glacier National Park is that the lake color is emerald green. Many lakes are long and narrow carved out by glaciers. Glacier National Park is also home to many Grizzly Bears and Black Bears. Thus hikers need to carry bear spray and be extra cautious.

We drove from Portland to St. Mary by Glacier National Park early in the morning at around 5AM. We stopped by Spokane and had a quick brunch at IHOP. As we drive towards Glacier National Park, we could see the sky getting smoggy due to the forest fire in the area. It was really unfortunate. We drove through Going To The Sun's Road and the view was breathtaking. We got to KOA St. Mary Campground by 7PM in the evening. We got a small cabin and it was quite nice.

On the second day morning, we drove to Many Glaciers Hotel by Swiftcurrent Lake to wait for sun rise. We loved the view here. We then drove to Grinnell Glacier trail head to hike to Grinnell Glacier. It was a great hike and saw a grizzly bear when we came back.

On the third day, we drove to Logan Pass Visitor Center very early in the morning by 5:30AM. We had to get here early in order to get a parking space. We first did the Hidden Lake trail before the sun rise. After that we did the Highline Trail and hiked all the way to Haystack Butte. At night, we went to Wild Goose Island overlook to see if we could see the milky way. Unfortunately it was too smoggy.

On the fourth day, we drove 3 hours to Bowman Lake through Polebridge. It was a beautiful lake with wildlife around it. The deer was not afraid of us and people were having amazing time kayaking and hanging out by the lake.

Overall, we loved Glacier National Park. It was one of our favorite. The mountains and valleys carved by the glacier was just so amazing. We would definitely come back next time when the smoke is gone.

Bowman Lake

 

Bowman Lake is a beautiful lake located within Glacier National Park. It is not as well known as other Glacier National Park places due to its remote location. Bowman Lake is located at Northwest of Glacier National Park and can be accessed by taking the rough road through Polebridge. There were campgrounds there for first come first serve. Although Bowman Lake is at a remote location, it is perhaps one of the most beautiful lake within Glacier National Park.

We drove to Bowman Lake early in the morning from St. Mary. It was a long drive and took about 3 hours. The road from Apgar Visitor Center to Polebridge was either having construction or unpaved gravel road. Thus we couldn't drive fast. As we got to Polebridge, the road became every more rough and had to drive slowly. As we get closer, there was actually a ranger station at the entrance collecting the park fees. Luckily we had National Park Annual Pass. From the entrance to Bowman Lake, it was still about 6 miles away. The road was still rough, but definitely drivable. It took us another 20 minutes to drive to Bowman Lake.

We got to Bowman Lake around 9AM in the morning. It was still early in the morning and the lake was so calm and quiet. The only issue was that there was smoke all over the place and we couldn't see far. Beneath the lake, we could see the colorful red rocks under the water. It was pretty cool. The bird around the lake did not seem to be afraid of people either. These birds came really close to us.

As we sat there and skipping rocks on the lake surface, a deer showed up and came by the lake shore. It was not afraid of people either. It had beautiful golden fur skin and was drinking water by the lake shore. It actually came really close to us when we were just sitting there. We could have touched it if we wanted to. It was really a great experience where human and animals can live in harmony.

We brought our camping chairs and sat by the lake for a while. As the day went by, many people came to the lake to do kayaking and paddle boarding. Everyone was enjoying the lake. We also heard several wolf howls when we were there.

We definitely want to come back here to Bowman Lake again in the future when there is no smoke. We could really see the lake to be extremely beautiful when the day is bright and clear.

Highline Trail

 

Highline Trail is one of the most amazing trail within Glacier National Park. It was simply beautiful. The trail goes from Logan Pass to "The Loop" and is 11.5 miles long. People usually hike from Logan Pass to "The Loop", then take the shuttle bus back. Since now the shuttle bus requires reservation, most people just go half way to Haystack Butte and turn back.

We started the hike around 7:30AM after visiting Hidden Lake. The trail starts off across the road from Logan Pass Visitor Center. When we started the trail, we noticed the the trail was essentially going around the cliff side of the mountain. The first half mile of the trail take people right by the cliff with vertical drop on 1 side and cliff on the other. The trail was about 2 feet wide. It might sound scary, but the trail was actually wider than we initially thought. There were also cables along the trail that people can hold onto.

The trail continued down the mountain side and we could see the highway road just below us. It was quite cool to hike along side the mountain and also see the mountain peaks surrounding us. The trail was essentially going down hill for the first 2 miles and so it was quite easy. Initially we were concerned about bears, but then we were thinking that bears would not come all the way to the cliff side.

After about 3 miles, we were right below Haystack Butte. We had a quick break here before we started climbing up to Haystack Butte. It was uphill heading to Haystack Butte, but it was not difficult. When we got to Haystack Butte, it was simply beautiful. There were several large granite rocks around the area sitting on the green grassy land. We were also at the highest point of Highline Trail and we could see everything beneath us.

We then went further down the trail and then we suddenly saw animal poop on the ground. We had a look at it and noticed that it had berries in it. We were worried that it could be bear poops and it was still quite fresh. Then we had a look at the trail ahead and saw the it was all down hill from here and we did not want to hike all the way back up. Thus we decided to turn back and headed back to trail head.

Overall, we enjoyed the hike. If the weather was not smoggy, it would have been even better. Nevertheless, the smoggy weather did not stop us enjoying the scenery.

Hidden Lake

 

Hidden Lake is an iconic scenery at Glacier National Park. It is located at the heart of the park, right by Logan Pass Visitor Center. The trail from the visitor center to the overlook is about 1.5 miles long. To get down to the lake side, it is about another 1 mile. Most people just hike to the overlook since heading down to the lake has high risk of bear encounter. So bear spray is a must when hiking this trail.

Since this is a very popular trail, we got to Logan Pass Visitor center around 6AM in the morning. The sunrise was at 6:30AM, so it was still twilight in the sky. Since the weather is quite smoggy, it felt darker than usual. As we started hiking, we were quite nervous as well because it was dark and we could not see very far to spot any bear if there was any. We were also the only people on the trail. As we hiked further for another 10 minutes, we ran into 3 girls sitting on the board walk waiting for the sun rise. They seemed quite cold and had blankets covering themselves.

The trail to the overlook was quite easy since it was just walking on the board walk. There were also a lot of wild flowers blossom along the side. It was quite nice. We got to the overlook around 6:40AM and the view was beautiful even though there was a lot of smoke. As we enjoyed the view, we saw a white furry animal climbed up the cliff. We were not sure what that was but it looked like a white monkey.

We did not head down to the lake since we wanted to do some other hike. As we headed back to the parking lot, there was stream of people on the trail. It was crazy. When we got back to the parking lot around 7AM, it was completely full. There were many cars circling around the parking lot but no one was going to leave this early.

It was unfortunate that the weather was quite smoggy due to the forest fire, but we still enjoyed the view on the trail. We definitely recommend to get to Logan Pass super early in the morning just to secure a parking space.

Grinnell Glacier

 

Grinnell Glacier Trail is located within Glacier National Park in Montana. It is located at the West side of Glacier National Park. The trail to Grinnell Glacier is about 11 miles round trip with come elevation gains. It is also one of the most popular hiking trail in the area and the parking area gets full very quickly even at 7AM in the morning. This trail is also known to have a lot of bear sightings, thus hiker need to be extra cautious when hiking this trail.

We got to Grinnell Glacier Trail head by 7AM and the parking lot was already full. We had to park the car on the side of the road and there was a ranger arranging the cars. We were surprised by how early people get here.

The first part of the trail goes through thick woods and we were quite nervous. We could see berry bushes along the side of the trail and there were thick vegetation on the side. It was a place where bear could show up at any time. We were paying attention to our surrounding and had our bear spray ready. Luckily nothing happened and we moved forward. As we got to Lake Josephine, there was a boat docking there. Lake Josephine was beautiful in early morning. The lake surface was so calm. We stayed there for a bit just to enjoy the moment.

The trail then started to climb a bit at the top of the hill. We could see the lake beneath us and we also caught up to many groups of hikers. This made us more relaxed since we were in a larger pack of people.

Although the weather was hazy, we could still see the beautiful mountains along the trail. We also saw Grinnell Lake beneath us with beautiful emerald color. We really loved it. Then the trail moved forward and there was a stream of water flowing cross the rocky trail. The rocks were soaked by water and the trail was very slippery. This was the part where every hiker needs to be very cautious and make sure not to slip. There were hikers even taking a bath here to cool down the body temperature.

The last part of the trail was climbing on man made rocky stairs. This was the worst part. We hated walking on these stairs because each step was quite high. After about 0.4 miles of walking on the stairs we finally made it to Grinnell Glacier. There were large chunks of ice in the lake and the color of the lake was beautiful emerald color. The area around the glacier was quite cold. We could feel the cold breeze blowing across the glacier. Although the day was hot, it was still cold there.

As we drove back, we saw a big grizzly bear just on the side of the road. It was using its paws to collect the berries from the bush and put it in its mouth. It was our first time seeing a real grizzly bear and we were quite excited.

Overall, Grinnelle Glacier Trail is an amazing trail. It has great scenery and a path to be right by the real glacier. The glacier is shrinking however, but we could still see its beautiful landscape.