Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park in northern Montana is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I know it seems like I say that about every place, but seriously it is!

Going to the Sun Road is the main road that goes through the park.  It’s a very scenic drive, but with many tight twists and turns.  We were not sure if we should drive our big dually truck on that road, so on our first day we parked at the Apgar Visitor Center and rode the shuttle bus up to Logan Pass.  The shuttle bus took a really long time!  From the time we parked at the visitor center it was about 2 1/2 – 3 hours before we finally got to Logan Pass to start our hike to Hidden Lake.  It took about an hour of waiting in line just to catch the first shuttle bus.  That bus only takes you as far as Avalanche Lake where you wait to catch another bus to continue on to Logan Pass.  During the long bus rides we realized there shouldn’t be any problem driving our own truck up that road which is what we did the next day.

Anyway, it was so nice to finally get up there and get started on this amazing hike!  The hike starts right behind the Logan Pass Visitor Center.  The beginning of the hike was crowded, but started to thin out the further we went.  These are the views at the beginning of the trail. It was surprising to still see snow in August!

A little past this point we got our first glimpse of the incredible blue-green water of Hidden Lake.  Many of the lakes at Glacier are this beautiful turquoise color which is caused by the glacial melt.  Speaking of which, if you want to see any of the remaining glaciers, plan to come soon.  The glaciers are melting and are expected to be all gone by 2030.

Hidden Lake

Most of the crowds stop at the Hidden Lake overlook and turn around, but we decided to continue on the trail down to the lake.  This is not to be missed in my opinion, although the hike back up was quite challenging.

We rested on the little beach at the bottom for awhile and enjoyed some snacks.  Just look at that beautiful, clear water!

Chris taught the kids how to skip rocks over the lake.

I enjoyed this spot so much; I didn’t really want to leave, but we had a long hike back and then another long bus ride back so it was time to go.  After climbing back up the hill we were rewarded with getting to watch these really cute mountain goats.

Thankfully the bus ride back went much quicker!  There was an empty bus ready for us as soon as we got back to the Visitor Center.  And on the way back down the bus driver told us he would take us all the way back to Apgar rather than dropping us off at Avalanche because this was his last ride of the day and he was going home.  What a blessing!

The next day we skipped the bus and took our own truck.  That was so much faster and very scenic!  I’ll write about that in the next post.