The Grandeur of Glacier National Park

A couple of the pictures you will see here are from that earlier summer of ’92 visit because on this visit we unfortunately had some heavy haze due to some spring wildfires burning up in Canada. The haze stripped some of the beauty from the glacier covered towering peaks that give the park its name, but it wasn’t enough of a problem to deter us from having a fabulous time and experiencing some beautiful scenery.

I still came away thinking that Glacier National Park has to be in my top 10 for scenic beauty of all the national parks I have visited. Because in addition to the glaciers there are some incredibly beautiful lakes, roaring streams and waterfalls, and wildlife in a concentration that is hard to find outside of Yellowstone NP.  

Glacier was established as a national park on May 11, 1910 when it became America’s 10^th national park. Try this on for size – according to the National Park Service, Glacier NP is over a million acres in size, has 175 mountains large enough to be given a name, and includes 762 lakes, 563 streams, and over 200 named waterfalls within the park boundaries. Add to that 25 named glaciers, and over 745 miles of maintained hiking trails and you have a recipe for fabulous getaway in nature. 

 

Most travelers enter either from the west through the Apgar visitor center near the town of West Glacier or through the St Mary’s entrance on the east side of the park. The famous Going-to-the-Sun road connects the two sides of the park. However, due to the snow the road is not generally open until mid June and can sometimes close as early as mid September. Glacier National Park actually straddles the Canadian and US border and the portion north of the border is called Waterton Lakes National Park. Sadly we weren’t really thinking when we headed out on the trip and did not bring our passports. So that gives us a reason to come back another time to see the Canadian portion. You can see the official map of Glacier NP here.

Glacier’s famous 55 mile long Going-to-the-Sun road is an engineering marvel that goes up the west side of the mountain range, over Logan pass and down to the east side of the park.  The road, built in the 1920’s, is considered one of the most scenic mountain roads in America and though it has more than a few curves it does a good job with convenient pull-outs for the cars to stop and take in the stunning views.

We were able to go up the Going-to-the-Sun road and hike to Avalanche Lake on the west side but we couldn’t make it all the way through to Logan pass before running into a road closed sign and having to turn around. The next day we took  an hour and a half drive to the east side of the park and were able to see more of the Going-to-the-Sun road before we ran into the road closure on the east side.

Glacier is bear country and the rangers do a good job of not allowing people to feed the bears and keeping people vigilant about not leaving food in tents and keeping a food free campsite other than during meal time. Still when you see a bear from the car you just naturally want to stop the car and stare or take a photo and before long you get traffic jams even in non busy times. And bears are curious creatures and pretty much go where they want including wandering through the campsites and along hiking trails and popular sightseeing spots. 

The Animals of Glacier NP - Click image to enlarge

We were lucky enough to see a good sized grizzly bear about 30 yards off the road and a nonchalant black bear feeding right next to the road who was unconcerned about all the cars stopping and the photos being snapped. We also saw a moose cow and calf feeding on the side of the road that we were able to watch for 15 minutes. There were deer walking on one of the trails we hiked and we spied a few mountain goats across the valley and had a close-up encounter with a beaver in one of the rivers.

Waterfalls of Glacier NP - Click image to enlarge

I’m glad we visited in late spring because there were no crowds and still snow capping the higher peaks. In the spring all the rivers were roaring with snow melt runoff and there were waterfalls everywhere. 

The Wildflowers of Glacier NP - Click image to enlarge

I have to admit that it was sad to see the destruction of the forest around the both St Mary’s Lake and McDonald Lake. Both of these very popular and oft photographed spots had seen major fires within the last three years and I know that neither of those spots will grow back in my lifetime. It was also disconcerting to see just how much the glaciers have shrunk over the years due to climate change. Ten of the glaciers in the park are no longer active and the rest are all continuing to shrink every year. The wildflowers might be the one beneficiary of the fires and the climate change because their beautiful colors were popping all over the park.