To start the next leg of our National Park road trip in Dora (our campervan), our first destination was Glacier National Park, Montana. We drove ‘Going-to-the-Sun,’ one of the big highlights of the park in 2017, on the way back from a Canadian Road Trip. However, we didn’t have time to explore it properly. We were excited to head back and knock off a couple of Ben’s bucket list hikes.
Glacier National Park
Glacier is 10.5 hours and ~650 miles from Portland, so we chose to break up the journey and stopped at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, for a night on the way. Coeur d’Alene is a cute town on the lake and a home away from home for many celebs, including George Clooney and Matthew McConaughey, which meant Mel had her eyes peeled and notepad at the ready for a cheeky autograph. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t spot either!
We entered Glacier on the West side of the park and, over the next four days, made our way along Going-to-the-Sun, stopping at camp stops along the way. This scenic mountain road is ~ a 50-mile road that spans the width of the park and was built in the 1930s. You make your way up to the continental divide at Logans Pass and back down the other side.
Our Hikes
Logan’s Pass was the starting point of one of Ben’s bucket list hikes called the Highline Trail. This hike follows a ridge line above the road to the sun. Known for fantastic views, it is extremely popular, and the car park fills up by ~7am most mornings (before sunrise). We set the alarm for 5:30 am and drove up the windy road in the pitch black. On arriving at the trailhead, we saw a couple get engaged at sunrise and discovered we were thick in the clouds. Given the early start, we felt committed and did the hike anyway, even though the views were non-existent. While a shame, we got over 12miles under our belts.
After over 3o,000 steps the previous day, we did a very popular shorter ~6-mile hike from our campground up to Avalanche Lake. The weather still wasn’t great, but for most of the hike, we were actually under the clouds and hiked along a wooded valley. At the end, we were greeted by a fantastic alpine lake.
Ptarmigan Tunnel/Iceberg Lake — Both of these hikes share the same trailhead and follow the first ~3 miles of the trail before separating. While Ben had told Mel the plan was to only do the 10.6 miles/2400ft elevation for the Ptarmigan Tunnel, she had already clocked that he was going to want to add the extra 5 miles and 600ft.
Ptarmigan Tunnel sits between the ends of two U-shaped glacier valleys. Originally built to allow people to explore the park on horseback, the tunnel was created by blasting a hole at the top of a mountainside. It was really cool to walk through this tunnel, which offers fantastic views on both sides, and Mel felt like she'd found a hidden gem in an Indiana Jones movie!
Iceberg Lake, as the name suggests, is famous for its icebergs. Visible for most of the year, it sits at the bottom of steep cliffs for ~270 degrees and gets very little direct sunlight. On the way, we saw Moose, Mountain Goats, and Bighorn Sheep. Even though our legs were tired, this really was an epic day!
Waterton Lakes
Glacier and Waterton Lakes sit on either side of the US/Canadian border and are joined in the first World Peace Park. Last time we visited, we did the only hike that crosses the US/Canadian border, where you get a boat back down to the US, get your passport stamped with a mountain goat, and hike back to Canada. Having hiked 37 miles in 3 days, we spent the time exploring other parts of the park instead and treated ourselves to a night in a hotel. This was most memorable by our inability to get into the room even with the key. We were stumped enough that we called the maintenance team, who arrived and just pushed it open. Embarrassed doesn’t really cover it.
Over the 48 hours, we saw the Northern lights (well, the phone captured them, even if our eyes could only see the faintest glow), Bison, a Grizzly bear and her two cubs, and enjoyed some smaller hiking trails and poodling around the edge of the lake!
To Sum Up
Even though the weather was not always on our side the last nine days, we had an incredible time exploring both these parks. We avoided being eaten by bears or running them over, having a near escape on the edge of Flathead Lake. We don’t know who was more scared, the bear or us…
What Next
We're back in Portland for a week to complete some life admin and a final weekend with Ben’s parents before they head home. Then, at the end of September, we're back in Dora to explore the Dakotas!
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