The warmth of Glacier
MONTANA | Enrich your soul with a trip to Glacier National Park, the Continental Divide and the many surrounding wonders
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Mont. -- As my husband and I hiked near the tranquil Avalanche Lake, a sudden movement caught my eye.
In the trees ahead, maybe 50 yards away, protruded a large brown, furry rump!
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I stage-whispered to my husband, "Bear! There's a bear!"
The black bear turned its head in our direction. Its face was beautiful. And terrifying. My brain clicked through the "what to do if you see a bear" literature we'd been digesting since arriving in Montana.
"Make lots of noise for a black bear" my brain dutifully reported. I started clapping; Brett, my husband, started whooping. The bear ran away, leaving us dumbfounded, a bit shaken, and, truth be told, thrilled.
This is Glacier National Park -- a wild, majestic, accessible vacation spot that's physically and mentally far away from the hustle and bustle of Chicago. Need your mountain fix? Glacier, which sits along the Continental Divide, will take care of that, with peaks as high as 10,000 feet.
Glacier is home to the famous Going-to-the-Sun Road, which marked its 75th anniversary last summer. The road ranks as one of the park's highlights. Named for a mountain in Glacier, it was built between 1921 and 1937 and cuts through the middle of the 1,600-square-mile park. It's simply a must-drive for its amazing views.
Give yourself several hours to get across the park via the road, and make sure your camera battery is fully charged.
To get an idea of what you're in for: Picture a two-lane road that rises up into alpine territory, a terrifyingly steep drop-off to your left, and the car that is on the bend ahead of you -- maybe a half mile away -- is just a pinprick against the backdrop of snow-capped mountains, thousands of pine trees and lakes reflecting the mountains and big blue sky.
The road has oodles of places to pull over to ooh and ahh, and the sights along the way just keep on coming. The Weeping Wall, for example, is a stunning set of waterfalls right along the side of the road. You're so close, you'll need to roll up the car windows.
Going-to-the-Sun Road also offers a magnificent view of Jackson Glacier. See these icy bulldozers while you can: Rangers predict the park's glaciers will be gone by 2030, which is expected to raise the timberline on mountains and dramatically affect the ecological balance.
Wildlife abounds at all elevations. It's not unusual to see a moose sipping from a lower altitude stream, fairly oblivious to the tourists furiously snapping photos. In higher spots, you might see mountain goats munching away along the road. A baby goat and two grownup goats entertained us one day, just hanging out and chewing grass within a stone's throw of our rental car.
The park system has a number of affordable lodges built around the 1920s. We stayed at Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier, Mont., just outside of the park's eastern entrance, on the Blackfeet Indian reservation. The lodge is beautiful until you get to your room -- think spartan dorm room circa 1970. But that doesn't really matter since there's so much to see outside. Skip the lodge's restaurant and hit nearby restaurants like the wonderful Mexican eatery Serrano's, or make the 27-mile drive to Cattle Baron in the town of Babb and try the delicious steak with the owner's secret sauce.
The park offers visitors plenty of options. You can do most of your exploring by car, stopping now and then to take leisurely strolls, or you can grab a backpack and wander and camp for days. The park has 13 campgrounds (and places to rent camping gear and get advice); more than 700 miles of well-marked trails for all skill levels; bicycling; guided hiking and rafting tours; boat tours on St. Mary and other placid lakes, and helicopter tours.
If you've blown most of your budget getting here by plane or train, hiking is a great way to go. The $25 park entrance fee (per car) is good for a week. One of our favorite hikes was the 3.1-mile (one-way) trek up 2,350 feet to Scenic Point. Roundtrip, it took us nearly five hours, including time for a mountaintop picnic overlooking peaks and Two Medicine Lake and Lower Two Medicine Lake. Bring a windbreaker -- the winds up there can be strong and you might see patches of snow, even in the summer.
Other great, easier hikes include Sun Point, Sunrift Gorge and St. Mary Falls on the east side of the park, and Avalanche Creek on the west. Ambitious hikers can climb up to Sperry Chalet, reachable only by steep trails on foot or by horseback. The chalet, built in 1913, has no electricity or running water, but it has a reputation for serving great food.
If you're nervous about navigating high-altitude, curvy roads in a rental car, you can leave the driving to someone else and take a tour on one of the vintage red buses. Prices vary by tour and reservations are recommended in the summer (www.glacierparkinc.com). The park also has a free shuttle system.
Our last day in Glacier, we stopped just west of Logan Pass. On the hilltops overlooking the road, mountain goats peacefully chomped on grassy meadows. We sat and stared at them, silently soaking up the scenery. Chicago felt a million miles away.