Road trippin': Day 17: Glacier National Park & Logan Pass (Pt. 1)

Note: I had to do this blog post in two parts because I had so many photographs.

We didn’t get much sleep again last night; it was pretty chilly on top of that mountain. When are we going to learn? I guess the blanket purchased from Goodwill didn’t do the trick. It was still chilly when we woke up around 7:30am. The sun hadn’t come over the trees yet, so we suffered through it while eating our bowls of cereal and making eggs and coffee for breakfast. As soon as we finished eating and cleaning dishes, we packed the car up and put the seat warmers on in Andrew’s truck. What a treat! We drove towards Glacier’s west entrance and arrived around 9:15am, there was already a long line to get in. We were in the park within 10 minutes and headed directly for the Apgar Visitor Center. Here, we talked to the rangers about what we were looking for so they could give us some recommendations. Ten minutes later, we walked out with a handful maps, papers with trail details and basic info about the park, but we had a game plan.

Inside joke for my family

West entrance

We started on the Going to the Sun Road and stopped at Lake McDonald. One of the things I remember most about Glacier (10 years ago), were how colorful the rocks are. My mom, sister and I spent hours hand picking our favorite rocks while my brother fly fished. The same beautiful rocks were still there, so I spent about 20 minutes picking a few out for my own collection.

Lake McDonald

Colorful rocks

Our next quick stop was McDonald Creek. We got off on one of the pull offs and walked down to the creek. Notice how blue the water is!

McDonald Creek

Then it was onwards to Avalanche Lake for our first hike; about 4 miles round trip. On the way we saw a beautiful gorge that had been carved and smoothed from thousands of years of rushing water.