8/63 – Glacier National Park | 7.29-31.17

VICTORY! We finally made it to Glacier when the Going to the Sun Road was completely open. And wowee, was it amazing (and busy!)!

We got in to our first campsite super late, because I’m the actual worst and I am completely incapable of leaving for a trip on time. No. Really. I am. We’re working on that… anyway. Thanks to my absurdly extensive packing and shopping lists, we actually didn’t forget anything, for once! That was kind of a shocker. I did have to stop back at the house between our Wal-Mart run and leaving to grab a snack I’d forgotten about, but in my defense it wasn’t on the list! We got on the way and headed up to Glacier. On the way up we saw a BEAR (didn’t get a photo because we were driving) just nonchalantly sauntering through town. I lost my mind. I love bears!

We got there in the dark (oops) and set up camp and went straight to bed. I’ll admit that I wasn’t too bothered about getting to bed late because we planned to take it pretty easy the next day- it was our wedding anniversary, and if you can’t relax and sleep in on your wedding anniversary, what’s the point? 😂

We headed out in the late morning to grab our sign photo, where I discovered that my trusty $13 Amazon tripod had bitten the dust. Well, maybe not, but two important screws were missing and I honestly have no idea where they may be. Thankfully there was a nice family there who was able to take our sign photo, and they complimented Teddy on his super good camera skills. What can we say, he’s well trained… at least to look at the camera when he’s supposed to, haha.

After that, and getting our stamp at the visitor center, we headed up the road. We made our obligatory stop at Avalanche Creek/Trail of the Cedars, where I took a little stroll and Brady and Theodore hung out and brunched in the car.

Don’t let this peaceful photo deceive you… the lakeshore was absolutely PACKED. It was a super weird experience after the last time we were there when the lakeshore was completely deserted.

We won’t talk about how long I waited for this one group of people to clear my shot.

I love Avalanche Creek. I could honestly spend all day there just reveling.

After that, we headed further up the road. We didn’t stop to take a ton of pictures because I hate being that person, but it was super fun to be able to drive the whole road this time! Driving through the burn scar of the fire during our last visit was intense.

We stopped for a quick bite to eat at Sun Point, which was great. We found a picnic table close enough to the parking lot that we could let the dog out of the car and have a nice view while we ate. That’s always a plus.

After our late lunch, I ended up taking the boys all the way to camp at St Mary to drop them off so I could do the hike to St Mary Falls. A lot of people ask how we manage taking a dog to the national parks, and the easy answer is… honestly, we don’t, really. It’s hard. Most of the time we either don’t get to do much, or one of us has to stay in the car or at camp with the dog while the other person hikes. Normally we just leave the dog at home, but since dogs are allowed in the national parks in Canada, this trip to Glacier was honestly mostly just a trip so that I could finally drive the Going to the Sun Road in its entirety, plus we were going to Waterton anyway so it was pretty much on the way. A few adjustments were made, BUT it was super nice to come back from an intense hike to dinner ready to eat! Hahaha.

St Mary Falls was a dream, and it was really awesome to finally see it in person. There was a family there that were all jumping off of a big rock at the base of the falls into the river, and it looked so fun. Honestly, when we go back to Glacier I want to plan a whole day to relax and hang out there!

This moose was suuuuuper far away. Probably the only real time that entire trip that I used my zoom lens. OOPS.

I got a lot of looks from people who looked shocked that I was hiking alone. But I’m experienced and prepared, and hiking alone is honestly super relaxing, especially on a high-trafficked trail in a national park. It was really amazing to get up close and personal with the trees that had been burned too.

After dinner, we connected my phone to the super excellent 4G at St Mary and watched the new Game of Thrones episode. People probably think it’s ridiculous, but it was starting to get dark, the mosquitoes were starting to come out in force (and there was a fire ban in effect so it’s not like we could’ve built a fire to keep them at bay or to sit around and chat), and the internet is dark and full of spoilers. Plus, we’re obsessed with Game of Thrones and this was the episode where Jon and Daenerys were finally going to meet, so who cares if we took an hour out of our evening to watch one episode of a great TV show that we were excited about? It worked out really well that we were able to stream it (in HD with essentially no buffering whatsoever) while surrounded by beauty and wilderness. Technology is cool.

Our Glacier National Park “Must Do”:

St Mary Falls is a gorgeous hike to a gorgeous waterfall- schedule time for some fun and relaxation there if you have the option!