Vacation to Glacier National Park

September 3rd, 2007

We just returned from a four-day vacation to Glacier National Park. We left Wednesday morning and drove three hours east to the park which is located near Kalispell, Montana. There weren't too many people when we arrived so we had the pick of a campsite. We stayed at Fish Creek Campground on the northwestern corner of Lake McDonald, about a three mile drive from the park entrance. Our tent was just a very short walk from the beach and we spent a lot of time swimming (frigid!) and kayaking.

The climate in the park is very similar to the area where we live, and we had sunny skies every day. Friday night after it got dark we had a huge thunderstorm. Luckily it passed quickly and the inside of our tent only got partially wet. The kids slept right through the thunder and lightning.

The park was amazing. It covers a huge area and in four days we only saw a small part of it. We did manage two day hikes, one over Logan Pass to Hidden Lake, the other to Avalanche Lake. My favorite was Avalanche... you hike up a very shady and beautiful cedar-lined creek, then come out into this incredible alpine lake with five or six waterfalls cascading down into the valley from glaciers and lakes further up. Both hikes were under four miles and perfect for the kids. We saw mountain goats, a herd of bighorn sheep, and two black bears which went swimming not far from our picnic spot at Avalanche.

Glacier has initiated a shuttle service now to avoid congestion on the one road that winds through the middle of the park. We had fairly good luck with catching buses and I'm glad I didn't try to drive to Logan Pass (very steep, virtually no barrier between the road and a thousand-foot drop to the bottom... perfect for height-fearing people like me).

Even though it was her first camping trip, Nadine had a great time. She claims that camping reminds her how lucky she is to sleep in a bed and have daily showers.

Click on the slide show below or click here to view our photos from the trip.