On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
realbtl
I live about an hours drive from the west entrance to Glacier NP which makes it a great off season picnic spot. I’m usually up there ar least 5 or 6 times a year mainly off season. Here are some shots of Lake McDonald which is the lake most people associate with GNP. Taken with my Costco Nikon P&S.
Lake McDonald
These are convertible days, crank up the heater and seats, down jacket and heavy wool hat and as long as it’s double digits we’re on.
4 months later.
April 2018
Nice weather late Sept.
A chilly but beautiful picnic.
Rusty
Thirty plus years ago I was the second year out of college and working as a school teacher. I had very little money but I did have a hodgepodge of used camping gear and the summer off. I was trying to put my life back together and so sitting around all summer wasn’t a good idea, so I took 5 or 6 weeks and drove from New England out to the Olympic peninsula and back. I camped every night but one to save money, staying mostly at the national parks and forest service campgrounds. The highlight turned out to be Glacier. I ended up staying longer than I planned and did a lot of hiking, and even splurged on a trail ride that took us up the mountains to a rustic lodge. I actually wept as I was driving away over the highway to the sun. It was the most beautiful place I had ever visited and I didn’t want to leave. Hopefully life will give me one more chance to visit.
lowtechcyclist
Back in 1983, I had a free summer in between years of grad school. And since I’d worked for a few years between college and grad school, I had some money saved up, so I decided to spend it on a drive around the country, mostly the western half since I lived on the east coast and had seen plenty of this side of the country.
So I drove across the country in my 1970 Buick Skylark gas-guzzler, camping out most places but visiting relatives in Maple City, KS, Canon City and Cortez, CO, hiked down into the Grand Canyon from the north rim, visited more relatives in Los Angeles, drove north through sequoias and redwoods, Yosemite Valley, the Olympic Peninsula and across the Cascades, but when I drove into Glacier from the west, seeing the view of the Continental Divide across Lake MacDonald, I was sold.
I’d been planning to head south to Yellowstone and the Tetons, but instead I spent a week in Glacier, hiking up to Grinnell Glacier, hiking the Highline (of course) including the Grinnell Glacier overlook – might as well see it from both sides, you know! – and a few shorter hikes too.
Somewhere in the middle of the Highline – well past Haystack Butte, well before the chalet – I was watching a small flock of bighorn sheep up the hill from me, and as they grazed, they were gradually moving my way. So I stood still and watched them, and they kept moving my way as they grazed, and for several minutes, I was in the middle of this flock of bighorn sheep, until their grazing took them on past and down the slope.
I know I will probably never experience that again, but to have had it happen even once…the joy and amazement of that moment is with me always.
I’ve been back to Glacier twice since, and expect to get out there again in the next couple of years.
As a fringe benefit, when my wife and I were there in 1997, we discovered easily the best pizza place I’ve ever eaten at: Truby’s in Whitefish, MT. We ate there several times when we were back in 2005, but I understand they closed up several years ago, so we won’t have that pleasure again. But I still remember their Thai pizza, their Jamaican jerk pizza, their Athenian pizza. Many places call themselves gourmet pizzerias, but they were the real deal.
Raven
I’ve hesitated to ask this here but, if you can’t walk and significant distances, would you still go. . .with a dog?
Ten Bears
The last time I was through there the traffic was so bad I didn’t see any of it.
Everyone else enjoyed the ride …
Jeffro
Beautiful pics – thanks realtbl!
I remember paddling my mom across Two Medicine Lake in a canoe, and having a snowball fight up in Logan Pass in July. Just absolutely mind-blowing, GNP.
lowtechcyclist
@Raven: Depends on the dog, I’d say. A well-behaved dog that isn’t going to bark every time it sees a mountain goat? Sure.
You can see a lot from the pulloffs on Sun Road, and there are a number of short tourist-level hikes (a mile or two) that are well worth it. Or just sit at the foot of Lake MacDonald and zen out. My wife is no hiker, but she greatly enjoyed our stays in Glacier.
Raven
@lowtechcyclist: Thanks, Artie is pretty well behaved!
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro: That reminded me of our August 2005 trip out there. We stayed in one of the cabins at Lake MacDonald, and one day, it was really cold and rainy, apparently not a good day for going out and doing anything.
Then all of a sudden, the thought hit me: if it’s this cold down here, maybe it’s snowing up at Logan Pass. So we drove up there, and sure enough, it was! We played in the snow a bit, and took each other’s pix standing next to the Logan Pass sign in the snow. In August.
Ha Nguyen
My friend went there last year with her older brother and wife who had some mobility issues. She said that it was very crowded and that all the parking lots were nearly full. She did find a parking spot, but it was far from the lodge with the bathrooms and her brother and wife refused to consider it. She has to drop them off and circle around until they came out. She didn’t even get a chance to visit the lodge and she had always wanted to visit the park which was why she had suggested it as a family trip.
So, warning, be careful when you go; you do NOT want to go just after a pandemic ends.
Jager
Been to Glacier 4 or 5 times over the years, the best trip was with my grandfather in 62, we spent two days at GNP on our way to the Seattle World’s Fair. Grandpa had driven to the west coast after he got back from WWI when most of US 2 was gravel. He had 16 flats on his new Dort out and back. We were driving his 61 Caddy Fleetwood, we had a flat, gramps, said, “You change it I’ve changed enough tires for a lifetime.
eclare
Such beautiful photos…those clouds! Thank you. Hopefully someday I’ll make it out there.
A Ghost to Most
Glacier NP and surroundings are the place we miss most in the now off-limits states. Colorado and New Mexico will have to suffice.
mvr
Nice to see photos of one of my favorite places. Thanks!
Since folks are telling first trip to Glacier when just a young pup stories, I’ll tell mine. My last year of high school all of my cool friends were going to do exciting stuff the next summer. So when asked I would say I was going to go backpacking in the Rockies to be as cool as they were. I sewed a Frostline kit backpack, asked for a pair of Vasque boots for my graduation present, and hitch hiked to Glacier Park from Illinois. It was 1976 and I had never backpacked. When I got to the park I got a back country permit and picked an itinerary that had me hike 9 steep miles the first campsite, past the Chalet to very high on a lake in the back country. Coming from the flatlands in not yet broken in boots I tore my feet up and gave my lungs something to complain about.
But the place was wonderful! I remember the mountain goats well, as well as eating wild strawberries in a meadow, drinking directly from a stream when I ran out of water and was severely parched, and lots of rocky cliffs and of course glaciers, impressive mountains and lots of lakes. From there I hitched on through Idaho to Olympic National Park where I hiked on the coast. I was by myself and it was a bit lonely. But I learned a lot on that trip. I’ve been back once and hope to go again now that I’m an old man.
Many thanks for the photos!
Hoosierspud
We stayed in Hungry Horse on our first visit and then stayed in Waterton Lakes, Alberta a couple times and visited the east side of the park. We hiked the lakeside trail and crossed the border. We ended up in Goat Haunt and took the tour boat back along the other side of the lake. We felt pretty lucky to see Goat Haunt since it is only accessible by boat, horse, or hiking.
realbtl
@Raven: Definitely go, dog will need to be leashed in park but there is plenty of land around where the leash can slip off. As far as mobility I’m 74 with 2 knee and one hip replacement. If you can come in Sept the crowds will be somewhat manageable.
realbtl
The crowds are a little more manageable now that entry is ticketed for the main part of the park but it’s still a zoo in summer. Spring is great though the pass will be closed due to snow possibly into June. My favorite is fall.
lowtechcyclist
Sounds like the park has gotten a lot more crowded since the times I’ve been there. I remember once when I had to wait for someone to pull out to get a parking spot at Logan Pass, and that was the only time I was inconvenienced by crowds to any extent at all. And the times I’ve been there have all been between mid-July and late August, prime tourist season there.
dp
That is so gorgeous.