We were pretty reluctant on the air travel given the fact that our son was not vaccinated yet , but travelled with the utmost care and precaution and glad that all worked out well.
Though there are many closer airports to Glacier, we flew into Spokane since we had some Alaska travel credit that we had to use (result of travel cancellation from last year!). The only flights from and to San Diego were late night and morning flights respectively so we were forced to stay the first and last night in Spokane close to the airport and had no choice. I was really amazed with the connectivity at the Spokane airport since the rental car and the airport hotels were all within 5 minutes walking time.
Do you need a Bear Spray?
After visiting the park and not spotting any bears on the trails, I would say not required. But it is always safe to keep a bear spray with you, it's more like an insurance - you need it but hope your don't use it!
Yes we did spot bears a couple of days in a particular spot ( read below for more info) but not on any trails that we went to. Maybe more of the Backcountry trails you would have more probability encounters.
If you are going just for a day or 2, I would suggest renting the spray as it would be cheaper. 3 days or more you are better off buying it.
The cost of the spray is $30 outside the park, we got it in Super1 foods on Columbia Falls. If you purchase it inside the park it is $50.
If you don't use the spray ( hope you don't!) You can't take it back on air travel, so you can drop it off at any visitor center as a donation to the park.
Food Options in the Park:
With covid, most of the restaurants are closed, so you would have to plan your food for the entire trip. Again there is no microwave or refrigerator inside the park lodges. We carried our mini instant pot and pretty much made simple meals for the entire stay. We had also bought a cooler in Walmart and filled it up with ice for the cold stuff. You can get free ice at any lodge you stay or there are ice vending machines.
There are also general stores inside the park where you can get basic stuff.
Day 0 - fly from San Diego to Spokane
Since this was a late night flight, we just walked to the airport hotel ( Ramada inn) and stayed there for the night.
Day 1 - Drive to Glacier National Park
We walked to the rental car center in the morning after breakfast. We started driving to Glacier National park at around 10 AM.
First stop was Walmart in Spokane to pick up groceries and basic stuff for the week. Please read my blog post on traveling with my Mini IP for meal ideas.
Please remember that you would be losing an hour since GNP is in the MST, when traveling from Spokane.
Lunch at Volunteer Park:
We had a pretty late lunch and ate at Columbia falls. Picked up some Pizza at the Stageline Pizza and enjoyed it at the Volunteer Park just opposite side. The park had lake access and it was a good break to stretch and wet our legs. West Glacier Cafe:
After an hour break, we continued our drive and entered through the west entrance of the park. There was no crowd at the entrance since it was late evening.
We stopped at the West Glacier Cafe and devoured on some local favorite Huckleberry ice cream and some pie.
It is a must have the flavor is very fruity and unique.
Lake McDonald Lodge:
The room was also a bit small, but it was ok for just one night.
There is a general store next to the hotel for basic things.
Day 2: Drive to Rising Sun Motor Inn
The next 3 nights we planned to stay in the east side - Rising Sun Motor Inn.
We woke up early around 6:30, took a stroll in the Lake McDonald and had breakfast by the lake.
We checked out and left the room by 9.
Lake McDonald Creek:
First stop was the Lake McDonald Creek, which is around a mile each way to the Lake McDonald falls. If you want to go directly to the falls, just drive further down and there would be signs for the falls and from there it is a short 0.2 mile hike to the falls.
The next stop as per plan was to stop at the Trail of the Cedars and Avalanche Lake but we could not find any parking in spite of waiting there for 20 minutes, so we skipped that for the day and headed on.
The Loop/ Heaven's Peak:
This is an overlook spot for the heavens peak and also the trail head for the loop trail. This trail is one of the longest and takes you to the Logan Pass Visitor center. We did not do the trail but just spent some time taking in the views of the majestic glaciers.
We spotted some glaciers on the road and stopped to play with the snow!
Next stop was the Logan Pass Visitor center. It was a struggle to get parking and we had to go in rounds for about 20 minutes before we got lucky with a parking spot. Plan to spend a few hours here as there are lot of trails to do.
After talking to the ranger and getting the maps, and also there was a line to get into the park store.
Do make a stop at the continental divide!
Hidden Lake Overlook Trail:
Round trip is 2.6 miles with an elevation gain of 600 ft.
You can continue the trail after the overlook point to descend down to the hidden lake, but we turned back at the overlook.
Total time taken was close to 3 hours.
Highline Trail:
By the time we got back to the car it was around 7 pm and we headed out to the Rising Sun Motor Inn for the night.
We just fell in love with the place at first look. Happy that we would be spending the remaining 3 nights here. The cottages were cozy and warm, the size was good enough and most importantly you can park the car right in front of the door unlike the Lake McDonald lodge!
We got free ice at the lobby everyday to fill our cooler.
After making a quick dinner and eating in the room, we cleaned up and hit the bed. We wanted to get up early the next day to get a parking spot.
Day 3: Hiking in the East Glacier
We headed out by 7:30 in hopes of getting a parking. We took some muffins and fruits for breakfast and planned to come back to the lodge for lunch.
Below was what we did that morning:
Three Falls Hike :
The three main falls of the east Glacier are the St.Marys, Virginia and the Barring falls. Now there are multiple ways to get to these falls depending on where you park, but all of them are in the same hiking trail.
We got lucky and found a parking at the St Mary's fall parking spot, though the number of parking was only around 10, one car was just pulling out when we came there.
We had our breakfast in the parking lot and headed out for the trails. Starting from the trail head here, once you go down 0.1 miles there is a mile board. If you take right you get to see the St. Mary's fall and then further down the Virginia falls, one way around 2 miles. We did both and the hike was not that strenuous.
Once we came back to the mile marker spot we kept going on to the other side to the Barring Falls which was another 1 Mike each way. I would say out of the 3 falls we loved the Barring falls since it is a perfect place for the kids to play and relax.
Did I mention that I broke my shoes with all the hiking? The sole had started to separate and I was just hoping to finish the falls hike before it was totally off. Luckily we got Shoe glue at the General stores. That glue really worked and Did magic.
That afternoon we decided to take it a bit easy since my shoe had to dry for 12 hours and I was left with my sandals.
St.Mary's Visitor Center:
We made a trip to the east side visitor center. We like to visit all the visitor center in the park to learn more about the history and geography. Since we had to skip the Trail of the Cedars on Day 2, we had planned to do that on the last day before our exit and was concerned on the parking situation. Talking to the folks at the visitor center they mentioned about the shuttle and we would need to get a ticket which was $1 per day. Luckily there was availability for the day we had in mind and got those tickets as plan B in case we don't get parking. Due to covid the shuttle stops are limited.
Two Dog Flat Head:
This place is on the east side and a perfect spot to see bears. Mostly when your drive through this location in the evening you are guaranteed to see bears. We had a good sighting of a mama grizzly bear and couple of cubs.
Wild Goose Island:
Siyah Creek:
Sun Point:
This spot is next to the St Mary's fall and is another trailhead for the 3 fall trails. We just wanted to drive through to make sure we were not missing anything!
We went back to our inn, took a stroll just to check out the other type of cabins and came back in for dinner.
After dinner we hit the bed since we had a pretty busy day the next day on going to many glacier for the boat ride.
Day 4: Many Glaciers
Since we had a booked boat ride for 10 am and also learnt that there is a potential 40 minutes delay due to road construction that is going on and parking constraints we wanted to start as early as 7.
Again we packed some muffins for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch along with fruits.
We reached Many Glacier Hotel by 8:15.
Like the Lake McDonald hotel this is an historical landmark but again parking is far off from the main building and requires a bit of walking and no elevator as well.
We were lucky with the parking situation since we got there early.
The boat ride takes your across two lakes- lake Josephine and lake Swift current with a steep 0.2 mile hike on between both the lake by changing boats. The ride takes 45 minutes each way and we were dropped at the destination around 10:45.
Now we had a couple of options : either go on one or both of the trails - Grinnel Glacier and Grinnel Lake or stay on the boat and return back to the hotel.
We were not sure if we could do the Grinnel Glacier hike which was 3.8m one way and hence opted for the Grinnel Lake which was 1.1m one way. It was a fairly easy hike and the Grinnel Lake was just magnificent with its Turquoise Blue color. The weather and the sunlight was just perfect that day to see the color of the lake. We spent around 30 minutes at the lake, had our lunch there and started heading back. It took us close to 2 hours and we were back by 1 PM.
We would have loved to do the full hike up, but were tired and also running out of water, but never the less the views that we go were just out of the world. If you do not have plans to do the full hike, at least try to do this and you cannot go wrong.
We were back by the boat dock in time to catch the 3:45 PM boat and with the 45 minute boat ride we were back in the hotel by 4:30.
We spent another hour or so in the hotel, just grabbing a snack and going around taking pictures, before heading out back to our lodge at the Rising Sun.
We reached the cabin by 7:30 PM and were lucky enough to see the Grizzly Bear and the cubs again at the Two Flat Dogs.
Got back to the cabin, had dinner and started packing up, as tomorrow we would have to check out and drive back to Spokane.
Day 5: Drive Back to Spokane
We checked out the cabin by 8 AM and the plan was to drive straight to the Trail of the Cedars that we missed on Day 2. We were hoping that we would get parking else the plan B was to park at Lake McDonald and get the shuttle to the Trail of the Cedars.
It is around 1.15 hours drive to get to the Trail of the Cedars, and we were super lucky to see a car pull out of the parking spot.
Hooray! Parking Spot conquered.
We had a quick breakfast at the parking spot and started our hike around 9:30 AM.
Trail of the Cedars/ Avalanche Lake:
So I had read this is one of the best hikes to do at the park and did not want to miss it for any reason. Trail of the Cedars is a 0.8m loop and if you choose to do the Avalanche Lake , it splits out from the mid of the loop and is 2m each way. Plan to spend 4 hours in this spot.
The Avalanche hike is a bit strenuous as it takes you over a mountain to get to the lake. The lake was in deed beautiful, but since we did this on the last day, after seeing much more beautiful lakes like the Hidden Lake and the Grinnel Lake, it did not awe me as expected.
Apgar Village:
We were getting ready to exit the park, and wanted to stop by at the Apgar area as well, so made a quick stop at the Apgar Village. I had made pasta in my Instant Pot, so we had a picnic lunch at the Apgar Village by the lake and treated ourselves to some delicious Huckleberry Ice Cream at the Eddie's Cafe.
My son wanted to get the penny from the penny smasher which is available only at the Apgar General store.
Apgar Visitor Center:
As mentioned earlier, we love to stop at all the visitor centers in the park, and hence made a final stop at the Apgar as well. Donated our unused bear spray to the park ranger, called it day and exited the park.
Since we had the extra time to spend we planned to take a different route back to Spokane and drove through Troy, which was an extra 30 minutes drive. This route I would say is more scenic as it takes you through the Kooteanai National Wildlife Refugee and do make a stop at the Kootenai Falls and suspension bridge.
Reached the hotel (Windgate by Wydham) close to the airport by 8, checked in and returned the car by 9 PM.
Day 6 : Fly Back to San Diego
Our flight was in the morning and we can either walk to the airport or get complimentary shuttle from the hotel.
It was in deed a wonderful trip and yes we would definitely visit the park again! But maybe could have done a few things differently:
1. Enter through the East Entrance as we felt that side of the park was more quite and beautiful and less crowded/commercial.
2. Stay at the Rising sun inn and make day trips to Lake McDonald and Many Glacier.
3. Stay a couple more days and do the Two Medicine Lake and rafting at the West Glacier.
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