I was up at 6am very excited about the park today. Today we get to see Glacier National Park! I took my usual morning shower and Noelle and I took a chance to do something we never get to do – a private breakfast date with no kids. Well, as private as you get in a room of other hungry people getting breakfast. It was a very good continental breakfast with hot sausage, bacon, eggs, potatoes, and gravy. I got some of everything!
After a few minutes of blissful silence, we went back to do my daily routine of waking the spoiled kids out of their beauty sleep. I think this time I used mostly loud talking and bribery. Eventually it worked and we all left to get them breakfast and headed out.
First stop was to the glacier Park sign to take a picture. Check! Second stop was at the entrance to get in officially. The US Park Service has a great program where you can get a free national Park pass for the school year plus summer for your 4th grader. You just go to the website, have the kid do a quick fun little quiz, then print out a piece of paper saying you are here to visit! It’s a great program to get kids off their iPads and outside and see the amazing things this country has to offer. It also saved me 80 bucks, so thank you Victoria. We turned in the paper, they have Victoria a hard plastic pass to sign, and we’re in!
Third stop was to the Apgar visitor center to learn more about the park. At this point on the trip I had not completely prepared all of the itinerary so I asked the ranger for suggestions. One of the things that is a bit of a bummer for our timing is the Going-to-the-sun road that’s a highlight of the park was still closed after avalanche campground so they can clear snow and complete other maintenance. You can still bike up it in some areas past the closed area. I may need to check that out for tomorrow.
While we sre here, I finally got some bear mace, which every single sign around the park and blog post about this area says you must carry. I handed over $50 for the potential chance to survive a charging bear encounter. Hopefully it will just be a waste of money.
We left there and drove up to the Going-to-the-sun checkpoint. Even though half of it is closed, you still need to have a reservation, which I had booked months earlier. They reviewed the pass and waived me on.
The first thing you pass is giant Lake McDonald on the left. It is a massive beautiful lake that seems to go forever and it’s framed by hills and mountains in the background. The lake is also very still and you can see reflections of the mountains in the water. Victoria has been talking about seeing this one for days since it is supposed to have pretty rocks on the water. At the first chance to pull over, I pulled over into a place with access to the shore.
The rumors were definitely true – vibrant little time and water smoothes stones were everywhere on the stony beach and water. They were many different colors – red, green, purple, white – just a rainbow of color in the water. We had a quick rock search to see who could find the prettiest stones. Victoria found a purple one shaped like a heart. They also made great rock skipping rocks and I showed the girls how to skip them. We snapped a bunch of pictures in the picturesque place then went back to the car and headed up the road.
After 30 minutes of driving past the lake, then a river with rapids, we eventually made it to the end of the drivable road at Avalanche Campground. When everything is open, it is a very nicely located normal campground, but at this point in the season or is serving as a parking lot – mostly for people with bikes. Everyone seemed to be unloading a bike around us. This must be some kind of biking mecca. I found one of the last few available parking spots and we grab our hiking gear. Our hiking gear is really a heavy backpack for me (the pack mule) and light weight coats for everyone else. Dad life at it’s finest – maybe once in old and gray (more gray…), I’ll get the bread pack. I did put the bear spray in there as well.
There are two well known hikes here that we’re going to do. The first is called the cedar tree trail that has its trailhead in the camp. We found the entrance and started out. It is a very easy loop that is mostly boardwalk through a quiet forest with many old cedars around. Very relaxing and calming to hike, with the silence only interrupted every 2 minutes with bickering between sisters.
The highlight of the trail is a great quadruple waterfall surrounded by moss and forest splendor.
Next to the waterfall is where the trailhead starts for the Avalanche trail, which is supposed to be much more challenging,.but is one the ranger recommended, so we start up that way.
The hike was definitely a good one. You pass more of that waterfall river cutting through rocks on the left and dark woods on the right. We passed a deer passing through and are on high alert for any bears. The trail was mostly a climb up through muddy, rocky terrain, but was not too tiring. There are several places where it looks like a landslide or avalanche happened, with many trees down – probably where it got its name.
After 4 miles, we made it to the end at Avalanche lake – another beautiful lake with a snow covered mountains right next to it. It was a good spot to sit down and have some of the hiking snacks we had with us. There were a few chipmunks sprinting around looking for crumbs that quickly snatched some of the cookie chunks that fell off the cookies we were eating.
We rested for a bit then started to head back down the trail the way we came. I stopped by the pit toilet they had there and wished that I didn’t. It looked like it hadn’t seen janitorial services for a year or two.
The hike back was much easier going downhill and we were there in no time, passing many tired looking folks that I promised there was only 10-20 miles left to do. We rejoined the cedar tree trail and quickly arrived back to the campground area where there was a proper restroom with clean, flushing toilets for the girls. I was quite jealous. There were several tame deer hanging out by the bathroom waiting for their turn that made Noelle jump on the way out. We found our jeep and drove back down the trail with one last longing look at the closed road further up. We did pull over to check out one nice waterfall for the road.
On the way down, we were passing the Lake McDonald lounge and thought it looked worth checking out. It was rustic looking, but nice facilities and we were still a little hungry from burning those calories on the trail. The main dining room was closed but it had a lounge right there still serving food so we grabbed a table.
I ordered a huckleberry smash alcohol drink that was the perfect thing to loosen up sore muscles and we had a very nice lunch. I had a lamb burger and Noelle had a sun roasted basil pasta. I tried to order ranch and was told the chef frowned down at ranch and didn’t allow it in the restaurant. Very good for park lounge food.
After lunch we saw a large tour boat taking off from a dock there and went to checkout what the options were over there. They actually had several things you could do in addition to the boat tour, all for very reasonable prices – kayaks, row boats, canoes, paddle boards, AND motorized boats with little 8 hp motors on them. If you know me, you know there was no question which of these I was going to do. I signed the waiver, we grabbed life preservers and the attendant helped load us into the motorized boat and pushed us out!
My happy place in life is scooting around on a boat on a lake with my family and getting a chance to do it on lake McDonald with the views of the mountains all around was one thing I’ll never forget. We took turns driving and drove it over to the side with the best snowy peaks next to where the river was filling the lake. There were several abandoned looking cabins on one side. I wondered if anyone would complain if we moved in. We did about an hour of cruising then cut it back towards the dock.
At the dock, the attendant there trying to catch me was giving some weird directions and I had a bit of a close call almost crashing into the other boats there with probably 50 spectators waiting for the tour boat, but I got her into reverse and turned it the way the attendant wanted and we docked without the need to test the deposit policy.
We were tuckered out from all that excitement, left the lodge and headed back out of the park. Back at the hotel, Noelle and I laid down on the bed while the girls played uno and relaxed for a bit. I relaxed so much that I fell hard asleep at 6pm without even eating dinner. The family said they tried to wake me up several times but I was dead to the world and shooed them away.
I found out later that they ate leftovers along with some microwave ramen and went to the pool for several hours. Glad they had some fun – Im sure I was dreaming of boat rides on the lake.
